Chad Terhune is a favorite author around this office. He writes great articles like this one about what’s going on in the health insurance market. https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-blue-shield-audit-20150705-story.html#page=1 In it, he breaks down what happened with a recent audit on Blue Shield’s funds. Here’s the Mom’s boiled down version.
Blue Shield has been a non-for-profit since 1939. In recent years, they have had more than $4 billion in surplus. That’s crazy big! Big enough that the State of California decided they needed to check up on it. August 2014, they lost non-for-profit status. The article breaks down a lot of what practices caused this to happen and views on both sides of the fence.
This will be yet another big change for Californians in next year’s health insurance systems. Blue Shield is the third-largest in CA. The Insurance Mom will keep you posted with trends and new info as she gets them. In the meanwhile, what do YOU think? Should insurance companies be non-for-profit? Should Blue Shield?
