BCBSNC CEO Bob Greczyn is one of the highest paid insurance executives in the nation

As Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina was busy bamboozling the State Health Plan, cutting radio ads to attack state employees, and plotting commercials to bash President Barack Obama’s health reform effort, CEO Bob Grezcyn raked in $3.99 million in pay for 2008.

A new analysis of the top ten highest paid insurance company CEOs shows that Grezcyn would make the list if BCBSNC were a public company. Poor Stephen Hemsley at UnitedHealth Group made a measly $3.2 million in 2008 while Richard Barasch of Universal American scraped by with $3.5 million.

That would put Grezcyn at number nine on the list and Hemsley would fall out of the top ten. To move up a notch Grezcyn would need to eek enough out of policy holders to make $4.4 million, which is how much Health Net CEO Jay Gellert brought home in 2008.

What a bummer for Grezcyn, only the ninth highest paid insurance executive in the nation. Well, there’s always 2009 — and this one is already shaping up to be a heck of a year for the state’s largest insurer.