There was another day of hearings yesterday on Governor Rick Snyder’s proposed overhaul of Blue Cross-Blue Shield of Michigan.
Other insurance companies say any reforms should make it easier for them to compete with the Blues.
Other insurers have long complained about their inability to win a bigger piece of Michigan’s insurance marketplace. Blue Cross covers four million Michiganders.
Rick Murdock is with the Michigan Association of Health Plans. It’s an organization of 15 for-profit insurers that compete with Blue Cross.
"There’s no disputing the fact that Blue Cross-Blue Shield has 70 percent of Michigan’s commercial insurance market – a monopoly by any definition," said Murdock.
A Blue Cross representative said the proposal will create more competition, and Blue Cross will, for the first time, pay taxes. But he also said the Blues’ marketplace advantage comes from being a not-for-profit company not focused on maximizing profits, and that would not change under this overhaul.
