Home > Uncategorized > Horrors: Public Plan would mean, gulp, competition for NC Blue Cross

Horrors: Public Plan would mean, gulp, competition for NC Blue Cross

Post on June 15, 2009 by 5 Comments »

I’m amazed that NC Blue Cross is getting away with a public stance against health care reform that includes a public plan option for North Carolinians. After all, NC Blue Cross insures 3.7 million people out of the 5 million with private health insurance in North Carolina. NC Blue enjoys a virtual monopoly in our state – especially in the small business and individual markets. Of course Blue doesn’t want any competition – they might actually have to slim down, become more efficient, and stop giving millions in raises to their top executives every year.

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Comments (Closed):4

  1. Billy
    June 15, 2009 at 4:43 pm

    NC BCBS is taking this state for a ride. They are compensating political leaders, like TONY RAND, to make sure that they don’t have any competition. It is appalling that the state employees of NC suffer while BC sits back and counts its money…money that they are bleeding from the state employees. While BC counts their money, certain political leaders are counting theirs. Something has got to change. It is time for someone to wake up and see this fiasco for what it is. All we here at the educational level is that we must get bids for everything that we do. What makes BC the exception to being held accountable for competitive pricing. When my son turned 19, I got a letter stating that in order to keep him on my insurance, he had to be in college, which he is. But, if he hadn’t been in college, his premium would have been over $300 dollars a month. After checking, I found out that I could have gotten him a separate policy with BC for a little over $100 a month. Please tell me how to make sense of that. There is something really wrong when you can get a solo policy for $200 cheaper than paying for a policy within a group of thousands of members. And BC thinks that they are working for the best interest of its members. We are not STUPID! Some of our legislative leaders are, but we NOT.

  2. Drew
    June 16, 2009 at 11:35 am

    Nice link to Kaiser and summary.

    Please help me out with the Math here. I see the chart, and am wondering where the residents covered by the VA and by Military Health Service TriCare are included on that chart? There are about 1.3 million total in those two categories?

    Thanks

  3. Adam Searing
    June 16, 2009 at 1:38 pm

    Drew – check out the notes at the bottom of the Kaiser chart:

    Other Public (Federal) includes individuals covered through the military or Veterans Administration in federally-funded programs such as TRICARE (formerly CHAMPUS) as well as some non-elderly Medicare enrollees.For more details, see “Notes to Demographic and Health Coverage Topics Based on the Current Population Survey (CPS)” at http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/methodology.

    There are only about 100,000 or so in those categories who aren’t included in the Medicare category already it looks like.

    Good question

    Adam

  4. Brenda King
    June 18, 2009 at 8:40 am

    I received a letter from the hospital in our area where I went through the ER last Sept. for a broken foot I paid all the billes that were sent to me and now I am getting a letter that says BCBS made an error and owe them another 150.44 I feel this is their mistake not mine and also since then my husband lost his job and I am the only one working it is hard enough to get by let alone pay for a big insurance company’s mistake. thanks for listening