What would help save money in the economy vis-a-vis health insurance is to allow plans that are multistate, eliminate group coverage discounts and perhaps eliminating coverage as an employment benefit (I know that last suggestion is radical and scary).

If health insurance companies had to sell to individuals but could do it in any state you would see so many new types of plans come onto the market that catastrophic coverage would be cheap for young people and families could get coverage that fit their own risk profile, saving money by buying high deductible policies.

As for selling, the internet gives insurance companies a scalable means of selling the policies without having to hire more commissioned reps (who now sell the group plans - part of the reason for group discounts is the commissions get spread over more heads).