House health reform bill requires pay out

During the campaign, Barack Obama promised to establish new requirements to force health insurance companies to spend a "reasonable" share of premiums on patient care rather than keeping so much for administrative costs and profits.

The Democratic plans for health care reform impose many new regulations on health insurers. Those regulations include new rules for how much insurers must spend on patient care.

In a bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, health insurers would be required to devote 85 percent of premiums to medical care. This would apply to all insurers, whether they are in competitive markets or not.

The Senate bill now under consideration would require insurers to report how much of patient premiums they spend on medical care but would not set a threshold.

Neither bill distinguishes between competitive or noncompetitive markets, so the rules apply to all insurers.

We'll have to wait and see if either measure becomes law. For now, we rate this promise In the Works.