TPMMuckraker
Blue Cross Blue Shield

Another BCBS Insurer Getting Customers To Fight Health-Care Reform

Zachary Roth | November 27, 2009, 3:01PM

We've been telling you about the campaign by Blue Cross Blue Shield to enlist its customers to lobby against health-care reform -- an effort now being probed by state authorities.

But a very similar effort by another Blue Cross licensee seems to have flown under the radar until now.

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Topics: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Health Care

NC Health Insurer Being Probed For Campaign Against Public Option

Nick Pinto | November 24, 2009, 6:21PM

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina is being investigated by the state's attorney general for a recent mailer and spate of robo-calls in opposition to the public option, according to a company spokesman.

In October, TPMmuckraker reported that the insurance company had sent a mailer to millions of its customers asking them to urge the state's Democratic senator, Kay Hagan, (D-NC) to oppose a public option. The insurance company also deployed a related robocall.

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Topics: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Investigations, Kay Hagan

Blue Cross Blue Shield

Health Insurer Lobbying Mailer Came After It Raised Rates

Zachary Roth | October 30, 2009, 12:21PM

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

Earlier this week, we reported that Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina had recently sent out mailers that urged recipients to lobby Sen. Kay Hagan to oppose a public option, which it called "a slippery slope to single payer." (You can see the mailer here.)

The story was picked up by the Raleigh News & Observer, which added an additional key fact: Just before sending out the mailer, BCBS of North Carolina had informed its customers that their rates would rise by an average of 11 percent next year.

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Topics: Blue Cross Blue Shield, Health Care, Kay Hagan

Health Care

NC Health Insurer Asks Voters To Lobby Hagan Against Reform

Zachary Roth | October 26, 2009, 12:47PM

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC)

Health insurers are using every tool at their disposal to pressure senators into opposing a public option.

The latest example: Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina has sent a mailer -- obtained by TPMmuckraker -- to voters in the state, warning that a public option will lead to "a single payer system," and urging recipients to send a postcard to Sen. Kay Hagan that asks her to "oppose government-run health insurance."