Remix clone Hacker News

  In this list, I couldn’t find a single for profit BCBS licensee
  other than Elevance.

Keep in mind Anthem/Elevance absorbed a bunch of licensees. So, for instance, Empire BCBS was for-profit but as of 2024 is part of Elevance.

At a quick glance Highmark and Wellmark are for-profit. And I believe the South Carolina licensee is as well. Mind you a few of the "non-profit" BCBS licensees have been sued over claims that they ought not be considered not-for-profit.

▲ lotsofpulp 15 hours ago | parent [-]

Highmark is non profit:

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/821...

Wellmark is a mutual insurance company (profits go back to policyholders, seems not comparable to a for profit insurance business, and for this discussion, is not going to have a profit margin that results in higher costs to policyholders):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellmark_Blue_Cross_Blue_Shiel...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_insurance

>Mind you a few of the "non-profit" BCBS licensees have been sued over claims that they ought not be considered not-for-profit.

I see no successful lawsuits, though. Still seems like Elevance is the only for profit BCBS licensee.

>In 2014, BC/BS of Illinois (Health Care Service Corporation) was sued over its nonprofit status. The lawsuit was dismissed, with prejudice, and the dismissal ruling was upheld on appeal.[62] Similar suits occurred with similar results in other states such as Oregon.[63]

▲ inferiorhuman 15 hours ago | parent [-]

To be clear if Elevance is the only remaining for-profit BCBS licensee it's because they bought the others.

Highmark got labeled as for-profit on its Wikipedia entry likely because they own a variety of for-profit companies including e.g. Highmark BCBSD Inc. and Celtic Hospice LLC.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/453...

▲ lotsofpulp 14 hours ago | parent [-]

But Highmark, the parent organization, is still a non profit. Based on their revenue and expenses on their 990 going back a decade, the entire organization is not delivering profit to any owners, it’s just spending money earned in its for profit subsidiaries elsewhere in its org.

Specifics aside, I think it is conclusively shown that no health insurance / managed care organization earns a ton of profit margin. No one is going to become billionaire rich by starting up a managed care organization, because they will spend almost all they earn.

It’s such a low profit margin business, that Buffett, Dimon, and Bezos abandoned it:

https://www.healthcarefinancenews.com/news/haven-disbands-en...

▲ inferiorhuman 13 hours ago | parent [-]

  But Highmark, the parent organization, is still a non profit.

So? The Mozilla Foundation is non-profit but Mozilla Corporation is for profit. They're delivering profit, just with an added layer of indirection. In this case the Highmark parent is technically a non-profit but e.g. Highmark BCBSD, the Delaware arm, is a for profit BCBS licensee.

	▲	lotsofpulp 13 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> They're delivering profit To who? Are there shareholders profiting? Employees on the take? > Unlike the non-profit Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla open source project, founded by the now defunct Netscape Communications Corporation, the Mozilla Corporation is a taxable entity. The Mozilla Corporation reinvests all of its profits back into the Mozilla projects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Corporation It’s the same with Highmark, assuming there isn’t massive fraud happening.