No matter what improvements are made or how much additional responsibility is given to employees for managing their own insurance, a raft of federal guidelines have to be accounted for first, task members were told.

"Bottom line is you can't expand the Utah group (insurance) market without addressing what our individual market looks like," staff counsel Catherine DuPont said, noting that federal code regarding continuing insurance coverage after leaving a job or what can be offered or not on a premium-only basis or on a cafeteria plan through a workplace dictates the course to a great degree, no matter what plans are ultimately offered.

"I'm not saying that's something we can't do, it's something that we'd have to do," DuPont said.

Speaking for one of the citizen focus groups the task force has asked to help plot improvement strategies, Lou Swane said the question before the group is not a hard one: People are asking for insurance with affordable premiums in a manageable benefits plan that pays for what it's supposed to and doesn't avoid payment whenever possible.

That's the bull's-eye on the target, task force members agreed.

Still, after months of discussions, some were showing signs of frustration. Rep. David Litvak, D-Salt Lake, said a lot of the issues that have been addressed so far are in the "better than nothing" category, "but I'm not hearing comprehensive reform anywhere. A more affordable product is fine, but that isn't system reform to me."

The task force is scheduled to meet three more times — Sept. 18, Oct. 13 and Nov. 20. Members and their advisers will have between then and January to draft reform proposals into legislation.

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E-mail: jthalman@desnews.com