The Sept. 23 editorial "Care First for the Poor" misses the central issue regulators and legislators must address in deciding the future of the area's largest health insurer.
The Post seems to think that the only issue is the right price to demand for CareFirst. But the first question government officials must decide is whether it is in the public interest to allow CareFirst to be sold at all.
That any money paid for CareFirst would be transferred to a public trust does not guarantee that the sale is in the public interest. The harm to the public from losing this nonprofit insurer and having it sold to a large, out-of-state, for-profit company could be greater than any benefit the trust would provide. After all, the District would get only a portion of any sale proceeds (the rest would go to Maryland and Delaware and maybe Virginia), and its trust would pay out only a small percentage of its assets each year to benefit residents.
The District's decision-makers need to decide if the sale is right before they decide if the price is right.
WALTER SMITH
Washington
The writer is executive director of the DC Appleseed Center, a nonprofit advocacy organization that is representing the interests of District residents in the CareFirst regulatory proceedings before the D.C. insurance commissioner. |
