Blue Cross Gaming the So-Called "Private Option", Legislators Contemplate Going "Full Retard"

Concerning Blue Cross cutting specialists reimbursements under the so-called Private Option" by 15% the Arktimes notes...

"Blue Cross's controversial decision is only tangentially connected to the private option itself, and ultimately is an issue that state lawmakers and officials don't have much direct control over. Any attempt at a legislative fix would amount to the state enforcing price controls on a private company.

"I don't think anyone wants to go there," Leding said. Lamoureux agreed: "I'm not in the business of setting the prices of milk or bread or health care and I wouldn't know how to do it if I was." - from the David Ramsey article on Arktimes.

That is correct Senator, and you also don't know how to effectively do all the government meddling in the health insurance market that you have done- but this has not stopped you from screwing it up at great expense. Blue Cross was already the 800 lb gorilla in health care, now thanks to the government herding people into a system only Blue Cross was in position to fully exploit, they are King Kong. If the dollars they get are fixed, they can still make tons of money by cutting expenses.

Of course in the long run specialists will leave the state in favor of surrounding states with higher pay. This will leave Arkansans with "coverage", but without care. That will only increase Blue Cross's profits even more as their "premiums" (i.e. payments from the taxpayers) will remain the same even while their payouts decrease as people can't find a specialist that will do the job for what Blue Cross offers.

Blue Cross is just gaming the system that the government put in place, like many private businesses are doing. Either this is the "Private Option" or it isn't. If you are going to meddle in the health care market as much as you have, it is going to cause dislocations like this. You are either going to have to back off, or go full retard. That is, wind up setting their reimbursements and by degrees telling them how they must run their company until health care is just another wasteful government program. In other words, you will wind up doing what you already admitted that you don't know how to do.