Sarah Kliff at Ezra Klein's place disagrees with Rick Ungar's assessment that the new medical loss ratio rules in the healthcare reform law will destroy private health insurance companies.
She makes some solid points about the individual mandate and the exemption of broker commissions blunting the impact of the new regulation, but she also points to the stock market as an indication that Ungar is a little overzealous with his "bomb" metaphor. It's hardly a good litmus test since the rule was only activated late last week, and stock prices can be influenced by all sorts of outside factors.
It'll be difficult to know the full effect of the ACA until everything is rolled out and humming along. But one thing is for sure: we now have a solid basis for promoting and passing more regulations that will ultimately lead to a public option and the destruction of healthcare profiteering.