The tooth benefits business quickly grew out of the blossoming health insurance market.
Hopefully, we could better appreciate the dental benefits industry by getting much more familiar with the roots of its as well as natural progression.
Health insurance began to appear in the United States around 1850 and yes it only provided advantages to individuals who had been disabled by accidental injury.5 Benefits for medical treatment didn’t begin to present themselves until 1910, and coverage for clinic, medical, medical and nursing care expenses began in 1930.5 The first health insurance models had been traditional fee-for-service programs (also also known as indemnity insurance plans). They had been quickly followed by numerous prepaid health programs, considered the precursors to today’s managed care insurance models including health maintenance organizations (HMO) and also preferred provider organizations (PPO).
The initial instance of managed care insurance came about in 1917 in Tacoma, Washington when the Western Clinic started providing the lumber industry with prepaid doctor services.6 In 1929, Dr. Justin Ford Kimball was a key player in setting up the Blue Cross brand by unveiled a prepaid hospitalization plan for localized teachers sponsored by Baylor Hospital in Texas.6 The Blue Shield method was used in 1939 for participating prepaid doctor pro dentim reviews plans.6
Among the pioneers responsible for making quality healthcare as well as insurance readily available to Americans was industrialist Henry J. Kaiser. In 1938, Kaiser recruited Dr. Garfield to help create prepaid clinic as well as hospital treatment for his Grand Coulee Dam project.6 In 1942, Kaiser and Dr. Garfield established a prepaid healthcare plan for the workers of Kaiser shipyards as well as Kaiser steel mills which really helped popularize health maintenance organizations.7 Kaiser Permanente is still prominent in the HMO insurance industry to this particular day.3
By 1949, there were eighty one Blue Cross hospital plans and forty four Blue Shield health-related insurance programs, covering a total of 24 million Americans.6 Blue Cross organizations and Blue Shield insurance plans covered 52 million and forty million Americans respectively by 1959.6 After merging, Blue Cross Blue Shield jointly covered 87.4 million Americans by 1979.6 So Blue Cross Blue Shield, among present day the very best insurance providers, was extremely important in the first managed care insurance movement.
Benefits grew and enhanced in the 1950s as traditional fee-for-service health insurance plans flourished and coverage expanded to include various other expenses, like vision care.3 Most insured people happened to be protected by either Blue Cross Blue Shield and by private industrial insurance companies in this time.3 Despite this improvement, the 1960s as well as 1970s brought about a tumultuous time for the health insurance market.
The term “Health Maintenance Organization” was coined in 1970 by Paul Ellwood, who was instrumental to promote the Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act.6 HMO insurance came about as the insurance marketplace adjusted to employers’ as well as individual consumers’ concerns along with the excessive premiums associated with traditional indemnity insurance.
Right after debating various costs for a national health insurance plan in the 1960s and 1970s, Congress passed the health Maintenance Organization Act in 1973.6 This Act provided grants to employers which implemented HMO insurance – regarded as cost-effective options to individual physicians and hospitals – & properly urged companies to offer the workers of theirs with overall health benefits.