Insurance Reforms Are "Up Front" In House Health Bill: How Will Insurers Respond To The Challenge?

Think a 1000-page health care reform bill is hard to digest? Well, the latest House version is currently 1900 pages long...before manager's amendments, before any real public debate begins. It's a foregone conclusion that there's much to dislike; it's also a foregone conclusion that much will change.

It is significant, though, that the first three big sections of the bill focus on health insurance reform. There's a basketful of "immediate reforms," a series of required changes in insurer behavior, and a section dealing with insurance exchanges, co-ops, and the public health plan.

We'll try to digest this a piece at a time over the next few days. But overall, it's clear that Our Friends In Congress (majority Democrats, at least) expect to see major changes in the health insurance market, some coming from changes in insurer behavior, and some, at least nominally, from changing the nature of the "risk pool" by encouraging the formation of large purchasing groups, whether public or private.

The politics are far from over, but regardless of the specifics of the outcome, insurers are going to be under great pressure to reduce administrative costs and simplify their marketing, sales, and business processes. It's interesting to wonder whether, somewhere behind the curtain of political opposition, some health insurance industry leaders are thinking about how they'll have to become more efficient and transparent, either to compete effectively against a public option, or to forestall one.

Wouldn't want to bet on it, though...