AUGUSTA — The legislative debate over the conversion of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Maine to a for-profit corporation may be over for now, but it could come up again in the future.

The nonprofit corporation that covers 480,000 Mainers has given up its attempt to get state lawmakers to endorse a conversion plan, but some legislators don’t want to drop the matter entirely.

Blue Cross can convert to mutual ownership without approval of the Legislature. That possibility may generate a new effort to set a yearlong moratorium on such a move.

Blue Cross says a conversion would enable it to compete more effectively with for-profit insurers who aren’t subject to the same regulations.