The Senate passed an overhaul of the US Health Insurance system today, passing the bill in a party line 60-39 vote. US health insurance stocks were not affected by the news as stocks like Welpoint traded flat for the day. It has become clear that with the loss of the public option the threat to insurance companies has been significantly mitigated. Since the death of the public option, health insurers have outperformed the Dow by nearly 20 points, and the passage of the Senate Health Reform did not put a dent in that. The bill is now primarily a set of subsidies to help people buy insurance (from private insurers) since there is no govenment run option. It is now clear that the health insurance industry will not take as great a hit as many were expecting with the passage of a health reform bill. Nonetheless, it is also clear that this bill has significant economic upside like the reduction of the deficit, the preservation of small business viability, and the improvement of the US employment situation. It is thus that while the bill could have done a much better job on the competition front, and it should have, the achievement is still an improvement over a status quo that entails skyrocketing premiums and should be commended.