Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Update on yesterday’s post: As another benefit from the federal health care reform law, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina announced it will refund $155.8 million to about 215,000 individual Blue Advantage policyholders in the state – or about $690 for the typical customer. In more good news, NC Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin successfully pushed Blue Cross to accept a 23% lower rate increase than it sought. The negotiated 5.37% increase is the lowest hike from Blue Cross in the past four years. Importantly, candidates for NC Insurance Commissioner can opt into a public campaign financing program. Goodwin got only about 5% of his campaign money in 2008 from insurance industry-related donors, compared to the 66% share supplied to his predecessor who had no public option for his campaign. Yesterday’s LINK also referred to the health-care money taken in by NC members of Congress. A report by the News & Observer includes an updated list of the top industries donating to Richard Burr’s campaign: three of his top four are related to health care providers, pharmaceuticals and the insurance industry.