Blue Shield Policy Closures Blocked in CA

It may take some time to establish a common ground. Among the CDI concerns is that without new members, a policy block will become more and more expensive for those who remain, a so-called "death spiral" of mounting costs."

No so, counters Shivinsky. "Not selling certain plans to new people won't have a dramatic increase on rates for the people who stay in their plans. There was no major impact on rates the last time we stopped selling plans to new people in 2010."

An unrelated lawsuit filed by Consumer Watchdog, an advocacy group, in June in San Francisco County Superior Court contends that Blue Shield "manipulates the closure of blocks of health insurance business with the apparent intention of illegally decreasing policy benefits to enrollees while escalating the premiums they must pay."