Pros
The pay and bonus structure are very good. The paid time off allotted is also quite generous. It was a very good place to work, from 2008-2010. This is a company in crisis, so there will be opportunities open.
Cons
For a health insurance company, the cost of the health plans offered as benefits was shockingly high. This company has been running in 'crisis mode' for the last several years. Everything must be done 'yesterday'. All decisions are very much based on short term thinking, with lip service being paid to overall strategy. There is no work/life balance, many people are essentially doing the jobs of two people. Management uses fear as a motivational tool. I found this to be the case in both departments that I worked in, and found similar reports from other people I spoke with across the company before I left. The company is also extremely political, more so than any company I've worked for in the last 15 years. They've lost a number of very talented people due to layoffs, re-orgs and bad management choices to accommodate the people who are on the 'in team'. Before I left, half the team that I was on told me about stress related disorders that they'd recently acquired due to over work. A recruiter from another company told me that she loves to hire Blue Shield employees cause they hire good people and then treat them like crap.