There’s a little hope in sight for health insurance customers—from next year insurers are obliged to make benefits and coverage a bit simpler… just not genuinely easy to understand.

In 2012, consumers are supposed to get some new, improved health plan descriptions from insurance companies, thanks to health reform. The proposed six-page forms came out Wednesday for public comment.

My impression? The new forms are an improvement over the lengthy, jargon-filled, legalistic communications that consumers usually face when trying to buy health insurance or understand what they or their employer have already signed up for. There are simple questions and answers about what’s covered and what’s not. They’ve also added a few handy examples of what a given health plan would cover for specific situations: having a baby, treating breast cancer and managing diabetes.

At the same time, health insurance in America is just damn complicated, as these forms make clear—even as they attempt to boil it all down.

mandated summary of health insurance plan benefits is long overdue, Health Insurance Resource Center, August 18th, 2011.

Read more here.