By Greg Halbleib
WASHINGTON – Some insurance companies are claiming losses because of Obamacare, but U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) questions how when some insurers in the program are profitable.
“What puzzles me is Blue Cross Blue Shield California is making money, Blue Cross Blue Shield Florida is making money, and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois is losing money. What’s going on?” Durbin told WJBC’s Scott Laughlin. “It turns out each one is managed separately and some have adjusted to this marketplace more effectively than others.”
Durbin admits Obamacare is not perfect, but says both sides of the aisle need to take a role in improving it.
“The problem we have, and I’ll be very blunt about this, the other party is basically saying, ‘We don’t want to fix it, we want it to fail. We don’t like Obamacare’,” Durbin said of Republicans in Congress. “We say, will you at least sit down and find a way to make it work better? (They say) ‘No, we’re going to vote to end it, period, no more conversation.’ I don’t think that’s a constructive way to look at it.”
Durbin said that the program isn’t going anywhere because of the additional 13 million people who now have health care because of it.
Greg Halbleib can be reached at greg@wjbc.com.
