Insurance and pharmaceutical companies can weather the reforms, but some of them regard

Health insurance and pharmaceutical industry can ride out the historic health reform is better than one might expect.

Although the pharmaceutical industry to prevent the control of prices and tougher federal regulations, insurance embraced greater access to health care for uninsured Americans - but still concerned about how the country will pay for it.

Even Wall Street cheered the prospects of this law with pharmaceutical companies pulling the market higher yesterday.

"Although the bill passed by the House is far from perfect, this coverage will give millions of Americans access to essential medical services and medicines," Merck said in a manual prepared statement.

Insurance sector was more mixed in the new law. Insurers believe that this bill will not be less than the increasing health care costs and improve patient care. Most alarming to them is their belief that expanding access to health care to millions of uninsured - half of which they plan to stay on Medicaid - will increase costs for all others.

"Laws, increase taxes on insurers, which are not increasing evidence of care and service transparency of price and quality rather than improving the quality of care of American families will receive," said William J. Marino, chairman and chief executive officer of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey's largest state health insurer, in prepared statement.

Manufacturers of drugs, many of which have large operations in New Jersey stand to billions of dollars, as previously uninsured consumers are starting to go on doctors and prescription drugs. They also won several advantages over his rival of common drugs. One of its provisions, for example, eliminates the so-called Medicare "bagel hole, requiring senior citizens to pay for their own medicines after a certain period of time. As a result, many decided to buy cheap generic versions or they stopped the drug altogether.

Another provision gives drugmakers for 12 years to sell biological products - expensive new treatments of human proteins and cells - before they face a common competition.

Uwe Reinhardt, Health Economist at Princeton University, said the industry has received "very good deal.''

Tony Butler, an analyst with Barclays Capital, which monitors the pharmaceutical industry, says, except for closing the so-called "bagel dyra''v prescription drug coverage Medicare, nothing will benefit drug manufacturers directly.

"Drug trafficking done better than it would if you re-import or price controls or some other evil things that were around vyry DC did it in the legislation,''said Butler." This point of drug made better because of what medical care is not included.''

For health insurers, potential customers will be overshadowed by the growth reduction of subsidies for individual Medicare Advantage plans offered for the elderly, as well as prospects for the new rules. Industry, through its trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, said the legislation will not control costs and that people still will wait until they are sick to buy coverage.

"Medikeyd reimbursement of medical workers is much lower than private environment. To the extent hospitals get more clients seeking help, it will transfer costs, which passes through the private sector," said Dave Guilmette, president of the national segment of the alert, which provides health insurance 500000 people in New Jersey through employer self-insurance plans.

"The main challenge we hear from our customers in New Jersey that the health of Premium tax levies that are imposed on pharmaceutical companies and manufacturers of medical equipment will be transferred with them," said Guilmette.

Over the next decade, pharmaceutical companies have to pay a $ 85 billion industry in the form of allowances and lower prices they receive from government programs. To pay for higher costs for patients with more medical needs, managed care providers need a large number of young, healthy people in the pool "to help spread the costs more effectively," said Paul H. Keckley, executive director of Deloitte Center for Health 'I Solutions, based in Washington, DC, research firm.

For this reason, "consolidation in the insurance industry looks inevitable," he said.