Newspaper reports following last week’s public hearing on Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s request to go for-profit described the “heavy hitters” who showed up to support the change. Specifically, that phrase was aimed at two of the 64 folks who signed up to testify at the cavernous McKimmon Center in Raleigh (only about 35 actually […]
Barbara Solow
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Smoke Signals 2
Anti-smoking activists who’ve been eagerly awaiting broadcast of a UNC-TV program called “North Carolina’s Addiction to Tobacco” will have to wait a little longer. The show, which was supposed to air in June as part of the station’s regular news show North Carolina Now, won’t air until January because officials say that’s the earliest slot […]
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A campaign “crusade” for Supreme Court
Ordinarily, getting candidates for state court races to reveal their positions on issues is about as easy as unraveling the plastic wrap that mummifies new CDs. That’s because judges are charged with being fair and impartial, and candidates feel justly constrained from discussing issues they may have to consider on the bench. But one candidate […]
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Blue Index
What’s the bottom line on a Blue Cross conversion in North Carolina? There are lots of numbers swirling around as regulators, consumers and health-care leaders debate that question. Here are a few of the most interesting ones: Total assets as of Dec. 31, 2001: $1.7 billion Total revenue: $2.08 billion Federal, state and local incomes […]
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Blue Notes
Bob Greczyn doesn’t look like a corporate shark. Seated behind a conference table in his Chapel Hill offices, the CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina exudes more of the folksy charm of a family doctor than the traditional reserve of a business executive. His jacket is off, his blue-eyed gaze is […]
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Conversion Primer
North Carolina is the only state to have passed a law that sets down rules Blue Cross must follow in pursuing conversion to for-profit status. After a coalition of nonprofit and health leaders stopped an initial conversion bill that required no repayment of the public investment in Blue Cross, a study commission was formed and […]
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Marking the day
On 9-11-02, I was buying lunch at a local gourmet food store. When I got to the cash register, the worker bagging groceries made insistent eye contact and once she held my gaze, intoned loudly and slowly, as if I were deaf, “Remember the day.” I felt a shock travel the length of my body. […]
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Trotline
Newspapers Put the Squeeze on State Legislators Guess which industry was busy lobbying against a bill regulating its business practices in the days leading up to last week’s primary? The answer is, the newspaper industry–the same one that holds the power of the endorsement pen in election season.And one local legislator said it made her […]
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Turning Outward
David Potorti’s office smells of freshly cut wood and computer printer ink. The space, carved out of a section of the garage at his home in Cary, is decorated with political posters, maps of the world, his son’s artwork, and a large, blue-bordered calendar with dates crossed off and notes scrawled in the squares: “Canada?”, […]
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Most Valuable Player?
On the campaign trail in Orange and Chatham, state Sen. Howard Lee likes to point out that he’s never introduced a bill that’s failed to pass. “One thing you learn in the legislature is how to count votes,” the fifth-term incumbent told members of the Fearrington Democratic Club two weeks ago. “I have never lost […]
