Should NC’s health benefits exchange protect consumers? Blue Cross thinks it should not.

The News & Observer today published a story on the Blue Cross bill to gut health reform.

As you may know, federal health reform legislation sets some minimum standards for implementing health benefit exchanges. A state can then decide what sort of consumer protections it wants to add when setting up its new health insurance marketplace.

Here is what Blue Cross said about adding consumer protections not required by the feds:

Blue Cross also supports provisions in Dockham’s bill that would limit the scope of this state’s health-care exchange to what’s outlined in the federal legislation that Congress passed last year. That legislation is being reviewed by various courts, and the General Assembly recently passed a bill that would make North Carolina the 27th state to challenge the constitutionality of the law.

In the meantime, officials in North Carolina are moving ahead with provisions that the law requires, such as establishing a health exchange.

“Should North Carolina’s exchange go further than the federal legislation requires? We believe it should not,” Morales Burke said.

We believe it should. And we believe the people of North Carolina want some checks on the power of insurance companies.