Premera Blue Cross v. State, Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development, Division of Insurance

OPINION

FABE, Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

These consolidated appeals concern Alaska's retaliatory tax statute as applied to Premera Blue Cross, a Washington non-profit corporation registered as a hospital and medical services corporation in Alaska. By stipulation and by engaging Blue Cross's refund request on the merits, the Division of Insurance waived its right to argue that Blue Cross should be precluded from seeking a refund because it did not pay its 1995 and 1996 taxes under formal protest. We therefore reach the merits of this case, concluding that retaliatory taxes apply to Blue Cross. We…