Blue Cross has 'excessive' surplus, Consumers Union claims

No kidding.  The amount that BCBS actually reimburses medical charges keeps getting lower, look at one of your bills, it is a pittance on the dollar.  The hospitals and doctors are forced to keep jacking it up to get some small percentage of what BCBS collects.

LC Industries is a non-profit that the top two guys make close to what BCBS top execs do and I'm glad and proud of them for doing it.  The Operations Manager came from the profit side of business and grew their revenue from $20M annually to well over $200M probably now approaching the $300M level.  They  increased the employment for the blind and seeing impaired by over 700 who now have jobs. 

Being a non-profit doesn't mean you can't make a profit or save cash for a rainy day.  The real secret is that working for a non-profit usually means you may make less but you almost always have better benefits and expense accounts.  Go look at the AKC.  Get place to work but not for the paycheck - the expense account.  Now in bad years for revenue the expense account goes down but if it's a good year it can be great.   

What do you guys think: "if a non-profit has done well make them give the money back."  Any of you told your boss lately, "boss - you're over paying me please cut my paycheck."  Yea, right.

I say it's obscene.
 

If there's so much money in the insurance business, maybe some of the fine folks at Consumers Union should leave and start up their own insurance business to compete against BCBS. That way, there'd be additional pressure on BCBS to serve its customers and it would give consumers/companies an additional choice. In my opinion, two (or more) entities striving to succeed is better than one entity striving to succeed and another entity striving to keep them shackled.

The whole premise of this story is somehow that one group of people is encouraging government to steal from a private party what is theirs. 

The government's job is to enforce the laws and regulations on the books. The government must approve all rate increases.  This means they awarded the right for BCBS to raise it's rates or premiums.  Here's the point - the government is the one who isn't executing their job performance duties at the higher end of the spectrum.  Government is always on the lower end of the job performance spectrum.  Anyone ever hear of a President or Senator or House Rep dedicate their office to raising the bar on job performance in the government.  Yea, they'll give lip service to it but what do they usually do - nothing.  I don't care whether it's nationally or at the state level the fix is in today - we are a corrupt people with a corrupt government all around.  We are getting exactly what we asked for and vote for!

Waaaaaah! A business is successful and has stockpiled assets to survive a recession! Waaaah! Here is more info on the "grassroots" organization screaming at BC/BS for making money, it's straight from their website:

The organization generates more than $200 million in revenue, and a staff totaling more than 600 work at CU's 50 state-of-the-art labs and offices in Yonkers, N.Y.; its 327-acre Auto Test Center in East Haddam, Conn.; and our three advocacy offices, in Washington, D.C., Austin, Texas, and San Francisco.

This report and article fails to draw the distinction between INSURED covered lives and persons who are members of a self funded plan.  The INSURED covered lives do need to maintain that monthly level of reserves.    However, the large majority of BCBSNC's members are covered by health plans that are not insured by BCBSNC, but are covered by a plan owned by their employer who is responsible for the payment of the claims.  The State Employees and Teachers plan is a good example.  One half million of BCBSNC's "members" have a card that says they can use BCBSNC's health provider network, claims payment system, but the name on the card is the State of North Carolina,.... with BCBSNC as the plan administrator, not BCBSNC as the insurer.  BCBSNC does not have to maintain reserves on these self funded lives that are the responsibility of the employer.  They know this, but hide their " excess profits" behind the fallacy.   The statutory responsibility to regulate the rates and level of reserves is held by the NC Commissioner of Insurance.  Jim Long kept BCBSNC on a short leash.  His successor, Wayne Williams appears to have taken his eye off the ball.  Get in the game Commissioner Williams, you have the law behind you, make them lower their rates instead of socking away more money that leaves NC and just goes to Wall Street.

I'll take my refund check now please.