Many analysts all over the country — in the insurance industry, hospitals, doctors’ organizations, legal experts and more — are studying the massive new law and attempting to boil it down into understandable points.

Along with our two national “umbrella” organizations, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), we have been monitoring the healthcare reform debate for months.

In fact, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana has been a leader for years in the fight to keep healthcare accessible and affordable.

• This is our corporate mission.

• The drivers of healthcare costs are many and complex, but we work hard to address those we can control by fighting fraud, keeping our administrative costs low, providing preventive and wellness care to our members, promoting generic drugs, investing in efficient technology and more.

• We have also long been a leader in calling for all healthcare industry stakeholders to work together to keep healthcare costs down.

• We have always supported meaningful healthcare reform that would rein in costs and improve the quality and accessiblity of healthcare. We continue to believe healthcare reform should address the rising costs of healthcare, which, unfortunately, we see little evidence of in this bill.

• We do have a number of concerns with the legislation as written, such as the inclusion of new insurer taxes and other provisions that we strongly believe will raise the cost of healthcare premiums. But we will continue to watch and wait until a final bill is signed into law.

• We will also work to identify these unintended consequences of the legislation and will work with the government and others to address them.

• Our focus moving forward is on working with our key business partners, like providers, employers, government and others, to ensure that the reforms passed by the House of Representatives improve the lives of the people of Louisiana.

• Beyond those changes, it will be up to U.S. regulators and state lawmakers to structure the marketplaces where health plans will compete, write the rules governing any profits and decide which medical benefits must be covered.

• Some analysts say insurers may gain as many as 32 million customers, but any profits may be offset by the rising cost of medical services, increased utilization and the cost of caring for more customers with serious medical conditions.

• Note that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana is a not-for-profit mutually held company. We’re owned by our policyholders, so any decisions we make are truly in their best interest. We take our responsibility for managing our customers’ premium dollars very seriously, and whatever the effect of healthcare legislation, we will continue to do our best to serve the people of Louisiana.

• The legislation that is now being considered by the Senate would have several important effects on our industry within the year.

• Immediately:
  - The bill would provide a $250 rebate to Medicare prescription drug beneficiaries whose initial benefits run out.

• 90 days after enactment:
  - The bill would provide immediate access to high-risk pools for people with no insurance because of pre-existing conditions.

• Six months after enactment:
  - Insurers must cover children with pre-existing health problems at once and let parents keep children on their insurance plans through age 26.
  - Insurers will be barred from revoking coverage because of severe illness and from limiting lifetime or annual benefits.