December 1st, 2008

In an editorial published today, the Times-Tribune outlines their view that Insurance Commissioner Joel Ario has been provided with abundant evidence that he should reject the proposed Blues merger.  Writes the editorial board:

“The Insurance Department commissioned an exhaustive report, indicating that the merged entity would hurt health insurance competition in several ways.

Then, after hearings, the state Senate Banking and Insurance Committee recommended, by a 10-4 vote, that the department reject the merger. That committee’s House counterpart also conducted hearings, but it chose to allow members to make individual recommendations rather than to take a committee vote.

As noted by the commissioned report and the Senate committee, the proposed merger would create the seventh-largest insurance company in the United States. It would have more market share in its home state, 70 percent of the commercial market and 53 percent of the overall market, than any other U.S. insurer. The spread between its market share and that of its next-largest competitor also would be the biggest in the country, in that the next-biggest insurer, UPMC, has just 6.5 percent of the market.”

Visit the Times-Tribune to read the entire editorial.