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Wellpoint Wins If Reform Loses

Ezra Klein has a big exclusive: He's gotten hold of a consulting firm's report projecting that Wellpoint insurance would be the big winner if health care reform fails to pass. It's not hard to see why, as Ezra explains:

Wellpoint's business model is uncommonly concentrated in the individual and small-group markets. Those are the exact markets that health-care reform will drastically change. Those are the markets where people get rejected for preexisting conditions, where insurers spend 30 cents of every premium dollar on administration and where rate hikes are volatile and constant. Health-care reform wants to change all of that, and if it does, Wellpoint's business model will be changed, too.

Of all the big political players in the health care industry, Wellpoint has been among the most hostile to reform. This helps explain why.