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Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are one of the most prominent health plans available in the market today. The blues serve more than 1 million insured people all across USA. More or less BCBS is the 1st choice for all the people seeking insurance.
But did you venture what is Blue Cross Blue Shield plan and how did it started in the first place? What are they made of?
BCBS is a national organization that links multiple states all across USA. This non-profit organization started in early 1960s in the state of Texas when a group of doctors and hospitals came together to offer services to community. The purpose was to provide top of quality health service to the community where they were based. The idea was that for a fixed price the physicians & hospitals will provide services to all the personals to whom the coverage is provided.
These plans were different from the traditional health insurance that the insured people do not have to file a claim for any doctor visits. This also served advantages to the hospitals that they do not have to coordinate with insurance carriers and this potentially reduced their overhead expenses. Thats why they grew very popular. www.admin82.cn
Because of the encouraging response in texas, later on the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans expanded to lot of other states where they gained huge popularity due to of simplicity and ease of use. However, they faced some drawbacks because of their policies such as -
1. They cannot choose the insured and cannot decline any applicant. Thats due to the fact that they are non profit.
2. The premiums to be charged were uniform for everyone irrespective of pre-existing conditions.
3. Due to the tax exemptions given to the blues, they had to work in strict guidelines.
Over period of time the BCBS Organizations started behaving as traditional insurance companies where they started offering wider range of plans and also started having profit motives. Because of this, sometime in 1980s there tax exemption benefits got revoked. Later on the Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations dismantled where in some the blues converted to healthcare companies and the remaining stopped providing services. admin82.com
Today, the BCBS are present in form of insurance agencies as well as associations. The associations sell their plans through independent insurance companies such as Anthem, Wellpoint , Carefirst, Highmark etc.
The Blues ensure that the companies that sell their plan are the best in the region and provide highest quality of service to the insured. Also, as per their guidelines, in a particular region, only one company can sell their plans. Wellpoint is their biggest carrier and sells the Blue plan in across 14 states such as Virginia, Connecticut, Kentucky, California, New York (As Empire) etc.
All in All, the Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are one of the best in the country. They are popular because of the ease and the quality of the service they offer. Due to their low cost and premiums, they are the 1st choice of people seeking insurance.
