Made up of a national federation of 39 independent, community-based and locally operated companies, The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has spent the last 70 years providing millions of families and individuals with the highest quality, affordable health insurance available. It is one of the oldest health insurance organizations in the nation as well as one of the most recognized, and is headquartered in Chicago with more than 880 employees. Providing for the health care needs of more than 100 million people, across all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, that statistic means that one in three Americans are covered by Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Even further, 90 percent of hospitals and 80 percent of physicians are contracted with BCBS companies, more than any other insurer in the nation.

The Blue Cross company was born of necessity during the late 1920’s amid the Great Depression. Justin Ford Kimball, a pioneering businessman, created the organization as a way to help 1,300 schoolteachers in Dallas pay for hospital care through small monthly payments to the Baylor University Hospital. At the same time in the Pacific Northwest, lumber industry workers and miners were plagued with injury and chronic illness. Employers sought ways to help provide for the medical care of their workers and made arrangements with nearby physicians who were paid on a monthly basis for their services. Thus was the origin of the Blue Shield organization. Both organizations grew independently, each under the symbol of their name, until the companies merged to become one of the most recognized brands in the company, Blue Cross and Blue Shield.

Having over 75 years of history, experience, and innovation, Blue Cross and Blue Shield today is a leader in innovative product design, consumer education, and the development of long term relationships with customers. Among its innovations include the BlueCard program. This enables members to seek healthcare while traveling or residing outside their home plan’s service area and still receive the same benefits. This is managed through a single electronic network for claims processing and reimbursement among Plans. Blue Cross and Blue Shield, as a means to develop scientific criteria for assessing medical technologies, founded the TEC Program. WalkingWorks is another Blue Cross and Blue Shield program which promotes the integration of healthy practices into everyone’s daily routine through things as simple as walking, thereby decreasing the likelihood of future preventable illnesses related to obesity and lack of fitness. Blue Cross and Blue Shield continues to make contributions to the field of healthcare through its affiliated research foundations that are heavily influential to the quality of health care and policy in this country.