On Tuesday, a top health official from the Obama Administration stressed that customers will witness immediate benefits through the increased transparency from insurers, which would be made possible with the healthcare revamp that the House is hoping to pass over the weekend.

Kathleen Sebelius, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, stressed that requiring health plans to report their premiums to the Government would help curb their recently seen rapid rise, as the insurance companies would have to justify these hikes with very valid reasons.

"Just some transparency in the marketplace would help. It will be helpful for the public to understand what the costs are. Medical-loss ratios would be the law of the land", Secretary Sebelius said. The thoughts were shared by her during a press briefing at a National Council on Aging meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.

Lately insurance companies have been raising their premium rates at a very rapid pace, a development which has disturbed the general population and led to a Congressional inquiry. Two weeks ago, Ms. Sebelius had requested information from some of the country's biggest health insurers, in order to calculate their earnings and also asked them to justify the rate rises. Insurance companies, while pledging to cooperate with the Administration, said that they are expecting that the Secretary would make "the same request for transparency from hospitals, physicians, pharmaceutical and device companies as well as other suppliers".