Blue Cross Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente
The history of Blue Cross Blue Shild and Kaiser Permanente, is the history of health insurance in America. They were born out of necessity more than anything else.
Blue Cross was a concept created in 1929 by a pioneering businessman, Justin Ford Kimball, who offered a way for 1,300 school teachers in Dallas to finance 21 days of hospital care by making small monthly payments. Blue Shield grew out the need for medical coverage for the serious injuries and chronic ilness that were common in hazardous jobs such as lumber and mining.
In just 10 years, enrollment in Blue health plans grow from 1,300 to over 3 million. BSBC was also responsible for providing the infrastructure for the Federal Medicare and Medicaid programmes during its launch in 1965. A massive program like Medicare would have not been possible without the established Blue Cross and Blue Shield infrastructure. In the five years following Medicare's inception, Blue Cross processed 63.4 million claims totaling approximately $19.2 billion. In 2001, the Blue System continued to process the overwhelming majority of Medicare claims totaling $163 billion.
Today, Blue Cross and Blue Shield System-wide enrollment reaches all-time high. More than 88 million Americans -- nearly one-in-three --have BCBS coverage.
Kaiser Permanente also began at the heights of the Great Depression when an inventive young surgeon, Sidney R. Garfield, MD, teamed up with Harod Hatch, an engineer-turned-insurance-agent.
They saw the opportunity to provide healthcare to workers building the Los Angeles aqueduct. Dr. Garfield borrowed money to build Contractors General Hospital, and began treating sick and injured workers. Garfield and Hatch had problems getting insurance companies to cover the medical bills, and not all workers have insurance. So Harold proposed an idea: get insurance companies to pay a fixed amount per day per covered worker, up front, and focus on preventive care, i.e. keeping people healthy and treating them early on to prevent serious problems later.
And so, along with preventive care, prepayment was born. For only 5 cents per day, workers received this new form of health coverage. For an additional 5 cents per day, workers could also receive coverage for non-job-related medical problems. Thousands of workers enrolled, and Dr. Garfield's hospital became a financial success.
However, as the dam neared completion in 1941 and workers left the project, it seemed that prepaid, preventive health care was coming to an end as well. But history intervened.
As America enters World War II, tens of thousands of workers -- many of them in poor health -- poured into the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmon, California. Henry Kaiser, then, approached Dr. Garfield to provide care for these workers. The organization that was formed out of this collaboration continue to grow into the Kaiser Permanente of today.
Today, Kaiser Permanente is America's largest nonprofit health plan, serving 8.2 million members. Besides prepaid insurance, Kaiser Permanente has also brought to American healthcare: physician group practice to maximize care, preventive care, and the organized delivery system - putting as many services as possible under one roof.
Blue Cross was a concept created in 1929 by a pioneering businessman, Justin Ford Kimball, who offered a way for 1,300 school teachers in Dallas to finance 21 days of hospital care by making small monthly payments. Blue Shield grew out the need for medical coverage for the serious injuries and chronic ilness that were common in hazardous jobs such as lumber and mining.
In just 10 years, enrollment in Blue health plans grow from 1,300 to over 3 million. BSBC was also responsible for providing the infrastructure for the Federal Medicare and Medicaid programmes during its launch in 1965. A massive program like Medicare would have not been possible without the established Blue Cross and Blue Shield infrastructure. In the five years following Medicare's inception, Blue Cross processed 63.4 million claims totaling approximately $19.2 billion. In 2001, the Blue System continued to process the overwhelming majority of Medicare claims totaling $163 billion.
Today, Blue Cross and Blue Shield System-wide enrollment reaches all-time high. More than 88 million Americans -- nearly one-in-three --have BCBS coverage.
Kaiser Permanente also began at the heights of the Great Depression when an inventive young surgeon, Sidney R. Garfield, MD, teamed up with Harod Hatch, an engineer-turned-insurance-agent.
They saw the opportunity to provide healthcare to workers building the Los Angeles aqueduct. Dr. Garfield borrowed money to build Contractors General Hospital, and began treating sick and injured workers. Garfield and Hatch had problems getting insurance companies to cover the medical bills, and not all workers have insurance. So Harold proposed an idea: get insurance companies to pay a fixed amount per day per covered worker, up front, and focus on preventive care, i.e. keeping people healthy and treating them early on to prevent serious problems later.
And so, along with preventive care, prepayment was born. For only 5 cents per day, workers received this new form of health coverage. For an additional 5 cents per day, workers could also receive coverage for non-job-related medical problems. Thousands of workers enrolled, and Dr. Garfield's hospital became a financial success.
However, as the dam neared completion in 1941 and workers left the project, it seemed that prepaid, preventive health care was coming to an end as well. But history intervened.
As America enters World War II, tens of thousands of workers -- many of them in poor health -- poured into the Kaiser Shipyards in Richmon, California. Henry Kaiser, then, approached Dr. Garfield to provide care for these workers. The organization that was formed out of this collaboration continue to grow into the Kaiser Permanente of today.
Today, Kaiser Permanente is America's largest nonprofit health plan, serving 8.2 million members. Besides prepaid insurance, Kaiser Permanente has also brought to American healthcare: physician group practice to maximize care, preventive care, and the organized delivery system - putting as many services as possible under one roof.
posted by JPG at
18:28
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