Today, an organization of state health-care regulators made an important decision. The Affordable Care Act mandated that 85 percent of each dollar patients pay their health insurers go toward actual medical costs, not business expenses or profit, but it didn't define medical costs. The state regulators voted to strictly define medical expenditures, so that insurers couldn't count their tax expenses, for example, as a medical cost. As with all major legislation, implementing the law is just as important as writing it in the first place. For more, check out the Prospect's recent special report, "Fulfilling The Promise of Health Care Reform," especially this article by top health-policy journalist Jonathan Cohn, which discusses this recent decision and other new rules for insurance companies mandated by the ACA.
-- Tim Fernholz
