Blues: Purchasing Pools May Not Help

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association says an actuarial analysis it commissioned suggests that forming new health insurance purchasing cooperatives would not do much to lower costs for individuals or small groups.

Past efforts to create “connectors,” “exchanges” and other types of purchasing cooperatives have driven up costs, by limiting competition, and, in some cases, by encouraging adverse selection by permitting individual workers at small employers to choose their own health plans, according to the BCBSA, Chicago.

The BCBSA is supporting its argument by releasing a report by Karen Bender and Beth Fritchen of Oliver Wyman Actuarial Consulting Inc., New York.