Article at a glance:

Helping retirees pay for health care

• The Medicare Modernization Act, which includes the recently introduced Medicare Part D, is coming into force. US health insurers are now focusing on their Medicare businesses.
• But an even larger, untapped growth opportunity exists. By 2014, products to help retirees manage their growing out-of-pocket medical expenses could lift the revenues of a single large health insurer by $10 billion a year.
• Most health insurers have built their businesses around relationships with employers and are poorly equipped to serve individual consumers.
• To reach them, health insurers will need new retirement health care products and new customer service and distribution capabilities.