Arizona appears poised for health care reform. (Health Care and Benefits)

It was bad enough when the health care industry came out with alphabet soup: HMOs, PPOs, IPAs, and the like.

Now employers are being hit with new phrases such as managed competition, health insurance purchasing cooperatives and global budgeting.

What does it all mean and how do Arizona employers fit into the technical jargon? For starters, see the glossary on the following page to help you get through the health care maze.

President Bill Clinton's administration, led by his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, has been grappling with ways to reform the nation's health care system for several months. Initially, plans called for revealing a health care reform proposal in May, but the complexity of the issue has pushed that date to mid-September.

Long before Clinton and his team started talking about health care reform, Arizona's health leaders had been discussing ways to improve the state's …