If it weren't on The Wall Street Journal's op-ed page, Richard A. Epstein's piece on what he sees as the inevitable demise of the health-insurance industry under the Senate heath-care bill would be remarkable.

"Lost in the shuffle," the University of Chicago law professor writes, is the bill's "intensely coercive requirements on health insurance issuers..."  that they spend a minimum amount of revenues on actually delivering health care. That's if they plan to participate in the government program.  Epstein goes on: "Taken together, these restrictions are likely to drive them out of business..."

That is apparently news to the insurers. According to yesterday's WSJ, "a host of health-care companies including Aetna were lifted by a key Senate vote." Indeed, several insurance stocks have been hitting multi-month highs since the deal was made to require everyone to buy health coverage but ripped out the public option.

The insurance industry is no doubt touched by Mr. Epstein's concern for its survival and his claim that the restrictions contained in the legislation are unconstitutional.

Others who've observed the blow-by-blow in this fight, however, have developed an unshakable faith in the insurers' ability to look after their own interests.

www.fromaharrop.com

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