Insurers consider shake-ups to business models under health law

Reuters: "Become tech-savvy. Bulk up. Venture abroad. Those appear to be among the most appealing alternatives for U.S. health insurers with their core U.S. markets in upheaval following passage of the healthcare overhaul, speakers at the Reuters Health Summit said this week. Greater investment in information technology and international markets are certainties for several top companies, while others may also look to increase their scale to better handle the new reforms. Standing pat is no option, said Mark Bertolini, the incoming chief executive of No. 3 U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc." Insurers are considering such changes because "[t]he new law imposes regulations and fees on insurers, and although it paves the way to expand coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans, it also threatens industry profit margins" (Krauskopf, 11/11).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.