Blue Cross is a name used by an association of 40 regional independent health insurance plans throughout the United States, and also in Canada, where patients can purchase supplemental insurance to cover expenses not paid for by government health care. It is an independent, nonprofit membership corporation providing protection on a service basis against the cost of hospital care in a limited geographical area. Listings are provided for each state. Blue Cross plans offer nonprofit hospital expense prepayment plans designed primarily to provide benefits for hospitalization coverage, with some restrictions on the type of accommodations available to the patient. The insurance carrier is usually a benefit of small and large groups; individual policies must be carefully reviewed.
These independent membership association operate on a service basis and provide protection against the soaring costs of hospital care. Benefit payments are made directly to the hospital, and benefits vary among various Blue Cross associations. Blue Cross plans are usually offered on a group basis. However, individual enrollment is sometimes permitted, and plans of community enrollment are undertaken in some local areas.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is based in Chicago and was formed in 1982 from the merger of the Blue Cross Association and the National Association of Blue Shield Plans. Both organizations trace their histories to health plans that were created around the same time in two different parts of the U.S. The evolution of Health Management Organizations in America is closely linked to the development of Blue Cross-Blue Shield.
Blue Cross was developed by Justin Ford Kimball in 1929 at Baylor University in Dallas, Texas. The first plan guaranteed teachers 21 days of hospital care for $6 a year. The plan was then extended to other employee groups in Dallas, and then nationally. The cross symbol was first used in a 1934 advertisement for the Hospital Service Association, today known as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota. In 1939, the Chicago-based American Hospital Association first used the Blue Cross symbol to give its stamp of approval to health plans across the country which met certain standards. The AHA continued to administrate the use of the symbol until the Blue Cross Association was founded in 1960. Both organizations remained affiliated until 1972.
At the same time Kimball's organization was formed, another health plan gained popularity in the lumber and mining camps of the Pacific Northwest. The first of these, Pierce County Medical Bureau (now known as Regence BlueShield) in Tacoma, Washington, was founded in 1917 and is now a part of The Regence Group. This plan provided medical care by a group of physicians for the payment of monthly fees.
The Blue Shield symbol was created in 1939 by Carl Metzger, head of the Buffalo Blue Shield Plan ,and combined a serpent with the U.S. Army Medical Corps insignia. The first official Blue Shield plan was founded in California that same year. In 1948 the symbol was informally adopted by nine health insurance organizations called the Associated Medical Care Plans, later renamed the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.
Over the years, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield healthcare insurance concepts have become widely popular with Americans. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association was formed in 1982 by a merger of the Blue Cross Association and the National Association of Blue Shield Plans.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is America's largest insurer and managed healthcare provider, covering 93 million people, nearly a third of all Americans. It is the largest single processor of Medicare claims, and holds the world’s largest privately underwritten health insurance contract, the 4-million-member Federal Employee Program (FEP). Combined revenue of Blue Cross/Blue Shield exceeded $230 billion in 2004.
