A little less than a month ago, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association--the trade group representing state-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans--released a misleading study suggesting that health care reform would mean higher premiums for small businesses and individuals buying coverage on their own.

The basis for the findings were calculations by the consulting firm, Oliver Wyman. But Oliver Wyman, by its own admission, had ignored or slighted elements of health care reform that promised to reduce premiums, such as the creation of insurance exchanges for people who don't get coverage from large employers and the imposition of a tax on generous plans. When MIT economist Jonathan Gruber analyzed the full Senate Finance Committee health bill, including these and other cost-cutting measures, he concluded that premiums would actually be "considerably lower":

:..for those facing purchase in the non-group market, the SFC bill will deliver savings ranging from several hundred dollars for the youngest consumers to over $8500 for families.  This is in addition to all the other benefits that this legislation will deliver to those consumers--in particular the guarantee, unavailable in most states, that prices would not be raised or the policy revoked if they became ill.

In part because the Association's paper came on the heels of another, even more egregious insurance industry study, most of the media ignored it. But it looks like at least Blue Cross affiliate has found a new way to put the material to use: By distributing the information to small businesses that buy its coverage.

TNR has obtained a pair of letters that Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and its parent company have sent to those small businesses in the last two days.