If you have ever wondered why no one seems to be able to create a comprehensive health care plan that can serve this state well, read Daniel Weintraub's terrific explanation in Sunday's Vision section. Click here to read the story. It's clear and comprehensive.

It's the perfect context for today's editorial on Blue Cross, which is engaging in business practices that would only seem ethical to graduates of the Marquis de Sade School of Business.

From the editorial:

Blue Cross of California, the state's largest health insurer, was one of the strongest opponents of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to overhaul California's health insurance industry last year. The motivation was clear: The governor's plan would have required insurers to sell policies to anyone who applied, regardless of any pre-existing conditions. Blue Cross' business model, in contrast, is built on the practice of denying insurance to those who are most likely to need it.. . . Blue Cross has already been fined $1 million for kicking pregnant women off its rolls after finding minor discrepancies in their applications. Now we learn that the company's aggressive cost-cutting strategy is becoming even more twisted.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Blue Cross was sending letters to doctors asking them to be snoops, comparing their patients' health condition to their applications for coverage. If the docs found anything that could have been disclosed but was not, the company wanted them to report it to headquarters immediately so the firm could use the information to cancel the patients' insurance.