Health insurers prime for new business with Democratic rule

Health insurers are priming themselves to gain new business from policy changes likely to be approved with Democrats in control of Washington. Democrats are expected to expand federal programs that cover low-income children and adults, groups that insurers are increasingly contracted to administer via private Medicaid plans. Other moves to reduce the number of uninsured also could boost the individual insurance market, which insurers also have been expanding into. A research report issued by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. estimates that health-insurance industry's revenue could actually grow slightly more under an Obama administration compared with the status quo, or if Republican Sen. John McCain had won the White House.