Wall Street was expressing pleasure this morning after the passage of the first major overhaul of the nation’s health care system in 50 years. In Des Moines, the state’s dominant health care provider was not so pleased.

Officials at Des Moines-based Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield said the bill will do “very little to rein in the runaway health-care costs that drive premium increases.” The company recently agreed to an independent actuarial review requested by Gov. Chet Culver of a proposed 18 percent average premium increase for its individual policyholders.

“Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield has consistently supported comprehensive health care reform that builds on our current employer-based health insurance system, reins in health care costs, and establishes an effective individual mandate to enable insurance reforms,” spokesman Rob Schweers said in an e-mailed statement.

However, Schweers said the measure approved by the House “fails in three critical areas,” the first being cost control.

“Our fee-for-service system will continue to reward quantity over quality, resulting in higher premiums for our policyholders,” he said.

Second, weak mandates in the Senate version of the bill requiring individuals to obtain health insurance will encourage younger, healthier people to forgo insurance, which will negate the benefits of measures such as elimination of pre-existing conditions and lifetime benefits limits and guaranteed issue, Schweers said.

“Third, new taxes on health insurance companies will contribute to higher insurance premiums without adding value to the service and care our policyholders receive,” he said.

Wellmark is working on an initiative to reduce the annual increase in health-care costs to the level of inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, by 2014.

The legislation passed the House of Representatives 219-212, with 33 Democrats joining all Republican members of the House in voting against the bill. See comments from Iowa lawmakers below in KCCI news.

IowaPolitics.com reported that Democratic U.S. Reps. Leonard Boswell of Des Moines, Bruce Braley of Waterloo and Dave Loebsack of Mount Vernon voted in favor of the bill, while Republicans U.S. Reps. Steve King of Kiron and Tom Latham of Ames voted against it. King joined protesters throughout the weekend, speaking against the bill.

Health care stocks were leading U.S. stocks away from early declines this morning on Wall Street, Bloomberg reported.

“The health-care legislation approval removes the uncertainty,” said Richard Sichel, chief investment officer at the Philadelphia Trust Co., told Bloomberg. “On top of that, the shares had been beaten down, so you can find reasonably valued companies.”