75 Years and Counting

This year at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, we're celebrating 75 years of service. With all that's changed since our founding in 1933, one thing has remained constant – our commitment to our members and their health.

As North Carolina's oldest and largest health insurer, our roots run deep into the fabric of this great state. And we're working harder than ever to make North Carolina healthier and stronger. With one in three North Carolinians depending on us for their health coverage, it's a responsibility we take seriously.

We look forward to serving our members in the years ahead. But in honor of our 75th anniversary, we'd like to take time to reflect on how we got here.

As a North Carolina-based company, we live and work in the same towns and communities you do. So we are uniquely qualified to understand the challenges and opportunities that all North Carolinians face when it comes to health care. It's been that way for 75 years. See how we've grown and improved our products, technology and services to meet the changing needs of our members.

Our commemorative history book, Crossing the Centuries, Committed to Care, written by Diana J. Newton, tells BCBSNC’s rich history from 1933 to 2008 through the lens of health care evolution in North Carolina.

Seventy-five years ago, the people of North Carolina faced health risks that are mostly a distant memory today, from hookworm to brown lung. There were far too few doctors and hospitals. For an enormous segment of the population, medical care was out of reach. Then in 1933 – in the midst of the Great Depression – a group of Durham visionaries had the idea that prepayment for hospitalization would help more people gain access to health care. They founded the Hospital Care Association. Soon a rival company, the Hospital Saving Association, formed in Chapel Hill. These were grassroots, community-based organizations, intent on an important social mission. And so began the story of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina.

As BCBSNC celebrates 75 years of serving the health care needs of its customers and the state’s citizens, this in-depth book examines the medical, socioeconomic and political realities of the early twentieth century. Read the first chapter to learn more about the rise of North Carolina’s leading health insurer.

To read additional chapters from the book, select from the following drop-down menu.

NC Health and Healing is an interactive timeline that presents selected artifacts and information from the North Carolina Museum of History's popular "Health and Healing Experiences in North Carolina" exhibit. This multimedia site tells the story of health care in our state - and the role BCBSNC has played in making things better for North Carolinians. Visit the site at www.nchealthandhealing.com to learn how far we've come and the advances we've made throughout the state's history.