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‘Blue Cross’ and ‘Blue Shield’: Insurance Against Costs of Hospital and Medical Services in the United States

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2016

John S. Thompson
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Journal of the Institute of Actuaries , Volume 87 , Issue 1 , June 1961 , pp. 20 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Institute and Faculty of Actuaries 1961

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References

page 21 note * Note as to terminology.—Aside from the business carried on in this field in the United States by life insurance companies, commercial accident and health companies, fraternal organizations, private industrial and commercial corporations, etc., in various forms and under a variety of names, a large part of the business of Hospital Expense Insurance is transacted by about eighty non-profit companies, and of Medical Expense Insurance by about sixty similar companies—practically all incorporated under special State charters, and devoted almost exclusively to their respective specialities. With the approval of the corresponding national membership organizations (formed by the component corporations chiefly for service and statistical purposes, not for under- writing) which have established standards of organization, performance and solvency, the Hospital Service component corporations use a name and symbol ‘Blue Cross’, and the Medical Corporations ‘Blue Shield’. These terms, therefore, which are widely used and which have rather clear connotations as hereinafter more fully explained, will be used throughout this article, for the sake of brevity, in place of longer and more varied designations.

page 22 note * A list of the payments, in the fiscal year ending 30 June 1958, because of disability, through programmes in which the U.S. Government participates, is given in the Appendix, Table A; item (i) above is included in the table, but number (ii), on a scale of $70–90 million per annum, is not included.