No health-sector stakeholder wants to hold the hot potato of biomedical technology-fueled margin reduction

Other stakeholders and events will influence whether health insurers' current postmerger prosperity will lead to U.S. health benefit programs that are predominantly sponsored by the private or public sectors. Large employers are encouraging three comple- mentary health benefit innovations to improve the affordability and quality, or "efficiency," of clinical services: portable spending accounts, provider pay-for-performance, and tiered plans. If health insurers prefer private-sector health benefit sponsorship, they will need to implement these innovations robustly, despite the risks they pose to insurers' current but predictably temporary prosperity. Clinical efficiency gains can also sustain access to bio- medical innovations for low- and moderate-income Americans.