Commentary

The Idaho Statesman reported over the weekend that Blue Cross is now sitting atop some $500 million in cash reserves. That is nearly double the amount of money it had on hand when Barack Obama was first elected in 2008.

Blue Cross officials said they were building the cash to deal with the various costs of ObamaCare.

But the simple truth is they are making record amounts of money. In most business circumstances, one would call this pile of money what it is: profit. But in this case, given the special privileges and market power that Blue Cross enjoys, company officials prefer to call this pile of money a “savings” account.

These profits come, of course, from the excess of premiums charged business owners, government and families. Those premiums have been increasing rapidly under the cover of ObamaCare. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Blue Cross has been taking advantage of the mass confusion over ObamaCare to do a little pillaging of Idaho households.

That pillaging appears headed toward even greater levels given the fact that the Idaho Legislature is poised to impose ObamaCare upon the people of Idaho.

One would hope that state representatives would take a deep breath and look at these staggering profits before going even deeper into protecting Blue Cross with an insurance exchange. And, regardless of anything else you’ve heard – the heart of the exchange debate going on at the Statehouse is protecting Blue Cross’ dominant market share.

Here is a link to the Statesman story.