Something for investors to consider is that the outcome of the clash shaping up between advocates of the Obama plan and health insurers could affect the latter's financial prospects as far out as 2015, maybe longer.

The industry's embattled managers know that the enormous new customer base the bill represents, attended by new costs and health risks, could start a long-term trend of earnings gains or one of stasis.

Some indication of the elevated passion in the rhetoric comes from Reuters online of October 17, quoting President Obama in his weekly radio broadcast: "Every time we get close to passing reform, the health insurance companies produce these phony studies as a prescription and say, 'Take one of these and call us in a decade.' Well, not this time."

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