The state of Michigan sued Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, alleging the insurer has obtained an illegal monopoly that has led to higher health care costs and worse health outcomes. The company did that, the attorney general argues, through striking illegal and anti-competitive agreements with other Blue Cross Blue Shield entities. The company used its market power to inflate premiums and out-of-pocket costs and reducing what it pays health care providers to “near the lowest in the nation, sometimes below the medical providers’ own costs to provide care,” the attorney general’s office said.
According to the attorney general’s office, Blue Cross controls 65 percent of the health insurance market and 79 percent of the PPO market, leaving providers with no meaningful alternative to contracting with it and creating the fourth least competitive insurance market among states.
“Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has implemented substantial premium increases and deep reimbursement cuts, unchecked by meaningful competition, to drive up our costs of care, drive down our quality of care, and turn our worsening medical outcomes into their increasing profits. Today we’re taking a significant step toward ending the Blue Conspiracy and their illegal monopoly,” said Attorney General Dana Nessel.
You can read the statement from the attorney general’s office announcing the lawsuit here.
