bcbs

No matter what you think of the obstructionist self-interest of Bob Greczyn and the leadership at Blue Cross Blue Shield, those guys aren't stupid.

A significant flaw in the proposed Senate bill, Greczyn said, is that the penalties for those who choose not to buy insurance - $95 the second year and eventually up to $750 - aren't strong enough to compel people to buy coverage.

Greczyn said he suspects that many younger, healthier people won't purchase health insurance because the penalty pales compared to premiums.

"My guess is that, no matter what passes, you're going to have Health Care Reform II, you're going to have Health Care Reform III, because we're going to get into the implementation of this and we're going to find out that some of these things just ain't gonna work, and then we'll have to fix them," Greczyn said.

If someone has already brought this up, then I apologize for the redundancy. I ran across this section from Article I of the NC Constitution this morning while being my usual nerdy self:

"Sec. 34. Perpetuities and monopolies.
Perpetuities and monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free state and shall not be allowed."

The North Carolina Constitution quite explicitly states that monopolies are not allowed in the state. If you know of a better term to describe BCBS's stranglehold on the NC healthcare market, let me know.

So what do you think? Can legislators use our state's own constitution to correct the state's private health insurance monopoly? And if so, why hasn't someone already done it?

There's a great diary up at Daily Kos about BCBSNC's efforts to undermine healthcare reform in America. Go read it. The story is also covered at The Huffington Post. Our friends at NC Policy Watch had it first.

Adam Searing at NC Policy Watch keeps his finger on the pulse of the ailing State Health Plan and the effect on state workers like April Graham:
State Employee Speaks Out at Obama Health Forum

This started off as a comment over in James' post about Doug Berger's ideas on the budget. I started to comment that Republican Pete Brunstetter had one crazy idea and one not so crazy idea.

What two things would you cut in the state budget? "I'm not a big fan of the More at Four program," Brunstetter said. "I don't think it has had the impact that justifies the cost."

He added that there needs to be some consideration of merging More at Four with Smart Start, another pre-school program.

Getting rid of early childhood education programs is so stupid I can't even comment, but the idea of merging two pre-school programs into one overhead makes sense.

But, this is where my bullshitometer went off.

I don't know quite how to feel about this. BCBS is doing something good...sorta. Their "Healthy Lifestyle Choices" program is basically preventive medicine through healthy living. I'm all for that. I mean, you do away with fast food, television, video games, and computers and America gets a lot healthier instantly. So, anything they are doing to make that better, well, that is a good thing.

BCBS of North Carolina Says Wellness Program Has Reduced Costs, Improved Members' Health Habits