Top 3 Healthcare Reform Changes Insurers Want Now

In an election season where undecided voters were courted like last chance prom dates and political rhetoric was at an all time high (or low depending on your point of view), the growing number of voters who just wanted the election to be over included an unlikely, but massive block of businesses: health insurers.

Jim Fox, a healthcare consultant at Warbird Consulting Partners, says the uncertainty over who would preside over the next phase of healthcare reform left health insurers feeling like they were on the sidelines.

"It's less on who gets elected as somebody getting elected and a direction gets established for the country and the payers to understand where it's going and what role they're going to play in that future," says Fox.

"Quite frankly, health plans have been—hospitals and large health systems—have had to deal with government regulations and oversights and review for a long time, so for them it's figuring out what direction the government goes... then figuring out how to deal with [it]," says Fox.

Now that health plans know President Barack Obama will continue to oversee healthcare reform, insurers can come up with the best strategy for slowing down, or in one case, repealing, parts of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Both Fox and the Association of Health Insurance Providers say their top issues all revolve around affordability.