Regence BlueCross BlueShield Pulls out of Oregon’s Insurance Exchange

May 3, 2013 – When the dust settled and the insurers announced their proposed rate requests for Oregon’s insurance exchange, the state’s largest health insurer – Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon – decided to back away. That decision came on the heels of Regence having the highest enrollment last year compared to its rivals -- 472,902 members – just slightly ahead of Kaiser Permanente – which had 464,637 members.

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Onlookers came away stunned. Regence had been at the table all along, testifying in favor of the exchange during legislative hearings and had staff attending work sessions organized by Cover Oregon. Its top executives, including Mark Ganz, Jim Walton and Don Antonucci had appeared in numerous public speaking forums touting their support, giving all indications they’d be a strong player in the exchange. The Oregon Insurance Division had even scheduled a hearing in early June to review Regence’s plans.

“Regence is just trying to game the system and play politics in the hopes that the exchange goes down; it’s quite obvious that they’re setting themselves up to compete by not participating in the exchange and not gamble on a risky population that they can’t predict,” according to people familiar with the marketplace.

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I suspect that the health insurers have done the math and discovered to their great surprise that the intent of Obamacare is to wipe them out as corporations, and replace them with the government.

And, with the assumption that they will follow the communist rule of selling Obama and the Democrats the weapons they will use to destroy the insurers.

That’s the trouble with assuming others are “stupid capitalists”. Because to have become wealthy as capitalists, almost by definition they are not stupid, at least as far as their own well being is concerned.

So, one after another, they are pulling the essential corporate support members out from beneath Obamacare, and causing immense pain among those who had previously supported it.

It’s downright Pavlovian. Support Obamacare and you will be terribly punished by it. Oppose it and it may be destroyed, and things will pretty much go back to the way they were before. With one choice, pain, and the other choice, relief.

Insurance companies are providing insurance under Obamacare, not the government. Insurance industry people wrote the legislation.

You can see in the article how this particular insurance company was “at the table” all along promoting Obamacare, leading the charge so to speak, then backed out at the end and created a new subsidiary to participate in the exchange.

If you think about it, once the exchanges are up, insurance companies that are outside of the exchange - can cancel a ton of policies that they don’t make much profit on - and those people “will be able to go to the exchange and buy”.

Now, the article and the comments after describe the subsidiary that will participate in the exchange - it’s going to be able to cut corners like crazy on how much it pays out. But the theory is to get people signed up and paying premiums every month that “can’t get” insurance. Basically, since these people can’t afford much insurance, or perhaps don’t perceive much of a need for themselves, it has to have the option of some low-priced insurance. This will be cheezy ripoff insurance that is cheap because it doesn’t pay much.

This is where so many are confused, IMHO - Obamacare is simply a more heavily regulated insurance market; the government is not functioning as an insurance company.

It’s all aimed at getting everyone to pay as much as possible for healthcare, and at the same time creating a very regulated market where rationing can happen for “the sheeple”. The poor and middle class alike will have as much money sucked out of them as possible. When it comes time for care, the poor will get el cheapo care, the middle class... well... as cheap as they can get away with... the rich... rolls royce care that the little people never see.

If any insurance companies (like the smaller ones) find financial difficulty and go bankrupt, their customers would, of course, be forced over to a surviving bigger company.

“Nationalization” really means a business monopoly; this is just a step along the way, a step that sets up for further “consolidation” and control.

I work in property casualty insurance so I have no dog in this fight. However, let me tell you my experience in my neck of the woods. The government gets these really great ideas -sarc alert- that drive up expenses and then don’t allow companies to make a profit.

I suspect that Blue Cross has finally gotten a clue that although Obamacare means playing footsie with an increasingly powerful administration (and getting some of that power by association), it’s not going to work that way. The administration (Obama) is not into providing good medical care at a reasonable price, they are into socializing medicine and giving you what they want to, not what you want. And if you are part of the working class, charging you a whole bunch for it.

I hope you aren’t an older person, as you are not gonna like your new improved plan to have no access to expensive procedures. And you might think about the last government program or regulatory initiative that went well and was less expensive than stated.

The reason insurance companies are cancelling policies is they cannot make a profit on them with the really stupid changes in coverage. The administration could have made insurance portable and available (needed changes, for sure) without encouraging irresponsible behavior - like getting insurance after you have been diagnosed with a bad disease. But they could give a rats patootie if insurance companies go broke - in fact, that is precisely what they are trying to accomplish.

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