Health insurance in the United States today is big business and there can be no doubt that, despite its humble beginnings, Blue Cross insurance is one of today’s major players. This article examines the incredible growth of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.
Blue Cross insurance was the creation of Justin Ford Kimball who, in 1929, devised a plan to provide hospital care for school teachers in Dallas. The plan provided teachers with cover for up to twenty one days in hospitalization each year for a premium of six dollars.
From these humble beginnings the plan spread, first throughout Dallas and other areas of Texas and then nationwide, providing cover for employees across an ever widening range of employment.
Just ten years after it was born the Blue Cross symbol was adopted by the American Hospital Association for plans that met certain standards and this formal recognition provided Blue Cross insurance with a springboard for further growth.
In 1960 the growth in popularity of Blue Cross was such that the Blue Cross Association superseded the American Hospital Association commission and some twelve years later severed all ties with the commission.
Finally, in 1982, the Blue Cross Association merged with the National Association of Blue Shield Plans and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association we know today was formed.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is in effect a trade association for some thirty eight independent and locally, or regionally, operated Blue Cross and Blue Shield Plans. These together provide cover throughout the United States, as well as in the Canadian province, for millions of Americans (it is estimated that one in three Americans now carry a Blue Cross and Blue Shield card) and makes Blue Cross and Blue Shield the country’s largest healthcare provider.
But Blue Cross and Blue Shield does much more than simply provide medical insurance cover on a group and individual basis.
The Association is now also the administrator for Social Security in a large number of states and often provides group cover for state government employees and for employees of the Federal government. As a result, officials within Blue Cross and Blue Shield work closely with government health policy makers at the very top levels of government and the Association plays a significant part in influencing the direction of government health policy.
It is amazing to think that a plan originally devised simply to provide cover for hospital bills for a small group of school teachers in Dallas has now developed not only into a nationwide plan providing cover for just about anything you can imagine from critical illness through long-term care, disability, life cover, dental cover, pharmacy cover and even cover for worldwide travel, but has also spawned an organization that is at the very heart of healthcare system of the United States.
With such phenomenal growth in the past seventy five years and such a strong position today one can only imagine that Blue Cross and Blue Shield will continue to grow in the years ahead proving yet more and more cover for an ever growing number of customers.
