[sleepwalker]

Just to clarify....

There are/were 30 odd Blue Cross Blue Shield companies. Anthem is one, BC/BS Tennessee is another, Horizon is another, CareFirst is another.

Each Blue has a defined geographical area. They do not compete with each other.

The Blue Cross/Blue Shield Association, headquartered in Chicago, is the company that issues Licenses to the aforementioned companies so they can use the BC/BS Shield.

And no, the association does not own any of the other companies.

[cva66snipe]

OK thanks for the information. The Tenncare {Hillary Care Lite} fiasco and HMO corruption which followed leaves a bad memory for me. BC/BS TN was a main force lobbying state lawmakers and propaganda force {running full page scaremongering adds in local papers} to push it through. It even went as far as a threat to doctors support it or Tenncare loose the private coverage business. Many as a result many doctors here do not take them. Humana is the preferred insurer and I can say they have been good. I'm under Humana myself. No problems getting a doctor even a specialist.

BTW just because they are located in different states doesn't mean only your state BC/BS covers your state. My dad retired from Ma Bell under a non AT&T company after the break up. AT&T bought the company back and the retirements as well. His BC/BS company was in Illinois. The last place I worked had AT&T. It was a nursing home. The company dropped AT&T and became self insured and we had a lot better coverage.