Management and union health and medical programs / Margaret C. Klem and Margaret F. McKiever.

  • United States. Public Health Service. Division of Occupational Health
Date:
1953
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Management and union health and medical programs / Margaret C. Klem and Margaret F. McKiever. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Significant events included: 1911—First group insurance contracts were written. Life insurance was the first type of benefit to be offered by companies and received widespread acceptance. : 1914—First group insurance contracts for temporary disability benefits were written. 1918—The National Convention of Insurance Commissioners, which was com- posed of representatives of State insurance regulatory bodies, adopted a definition of group insurance and laid down certain basic principles to guide its development. Most life-insurance companies accepted the defini- tion and principle immediately, and laws incorporating these provisions were passed in many States. 1935-37—Large life-insurance companies began to write group hospital expense insurance. At first, contracts were not sold separately but were written to supplement group life and disability contracts already in force. They covered employees only. 1936-38—Companies began to write surgical expense contracts and to cover dependents. 1940—Experiments in medical expense coverage began about this time; the practice became more general by mid-1940’s. 1946—The Health Insurance Council was established primarily to provide insur- ance companies with a means of communicating with doctors, hospitals, and their organizations. The council is composed of representatives of nine insurance company associations. 1950—Companies began to write major medical expense contracts covering long- term expensive illnesses. The insured pays initial cost of illness up to a specified amount, varying according to cost of policy. Blue Cross Hospital Plans The first prepayment hospital service plans were developed by in- dividual hospitals. Hospitals in northern Minnesota sold such insur- ‘ance to lumberjacks as early as 1880. ‘These early plans were success- ful at first, but they failed eventually because of overutilization. The predecessor of the present Blue Cross plans was a hospital pro- gram established at Baylor University, Dallas, Tex., in 1929. The vice president of the university developed a plan at the request of teachers in the community. For a prepayment fee of $3 per semester or $6 a year, members were eligible for 3 weeks’ hospitalization. Other employed groups in the city asked permission to join. Similar programs began to spring up in other sections of the country. Hos- pitals serving these communities.soon realized the advantage of de- veloping community-wide programs instead of operating individual hospital plans. By 1941, 65 approved hospital service plans, with an enrollment of more than 6 million persons, were in operation in the United States. The following events were significant in the development of hospital plans: il