Insurance commissioner: North Carolinians should be very concerned about this Blue Cross NC legislation | Opinion [The Charlotte Observer]

Charlotte Observer (NC)

As the North Carolina Commissioner of Insurance, I must sound the alarm for policyholders of Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC) and North Carolina taxpayers. Two bills pending in the N.C. General Assembly (House Bill 346/Senate Bill 296) are anything but consumer friendly — they are all about corporate greed.

As a nonprofit corporation, Blue Cross NC has no investors. All of Blue Cross NC’s $7.7 billion in admitted assets, either directly or indirectly, comes from North Carolina policyholder premiums and taxpayers.

Blue Cross NC is proposing legislation that will allow the insurance company to move policyholder money, currently held in surplus, to a corporate holding company. Using this they could then invest the policyholder and taxpayer money without any regulatory oversight from the Department of Insurance and without the transparency into the use of those funds that is currently available to consumers.

The bill will also allow Blue Cross NC to be controlled by the corporate holding company without having to comply with existing laws that would require it to provide a benefit to the people of North Carolina equal to its fair market value.

North Carolinians should be concerned about how the bill will let Blue Cross NC skip on providing this benefit to the people of North Carolina.

If this bill passes without additional protections, it will have a negative financial impact on N.C. policyholders because moving money from Blue Cross NC’s surplus to the holding company will likely lead to rate increases for policyholders.

It’s my job as Commissioner of Insurance to be an advocate for consumers — the people who are paying the insurance premiums. I cannot in good faith support this bill as I believe it hurts the people in North Carolina who are writing checks every month.

It’s plain and simple. This bill is bad for the working people of North Carolina. This bill is bad for the policyholders who dutifully pay their premiums every month, allowing Blue Cross NC to accumulate $4.6 billion dollars in surplus.

I cannot allow this legislation to move forward without letting my objections first be known.

I believe Blue Cross NC can best serve North Carolina by focusing on reducing premiums and providing quality service to its policyholders.