BCBS of Illinois Ratings		2 Customer Ratings
Coverage:		3 out of 5
Cost:		2.5 out of 5
Customer Service:		2.5 out of 5
Claims:		3 out of 5

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois has roots that extend as far as the Great Depression. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois was created when a collection of business leaders noticed how even minor illnesses that required hospitalization were financially ruining families. These leaders saw the hardship on their neighbors and leapt into action to remedy it.

In 1936, the collection of business leaders pooled their savings and launched a non-profit company called Hospital Service Corporation. This company offered an affordable pre-paid hospital plan which, at the time, was a new concept. The plan quickly became known as "the Chicago Plan" and was one of the forerunners for today's concept of health insurance. The idea behind the Hospital Service Corporation caught on around the United States and gave birth to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, as well as Blue Cross and Blue Shield throughout the country.

Today, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is the most experienced health insurance company in Illinois. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois provides 6.5 million members with affordable and easy to understand health plans. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is a division of Health Care Service Corporation and provides a high level of assurance and confidence for the members.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is an innovative, responsive and efficient health insurance company that offers a variety of health plans. One of the plans is Blue Access for Members, a group health plan providing members and their dependents with online access where they can view their benefit summaries, status of claims, information on their providers and health tips.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is committed to providing a high standard of integrity and ethics in business that fulfills their corporate citizenship responsibilities to the communities that they service.

History of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois

The Health Care Service Corporation traces its roots to the very first hospital care pre-paid plan in the world which was founded by Justin Ford Kimball in 1929. Kimball was the vice president at the Baylor University School of Medicine in Waco, Texas.

With Kimball's plan as a model to work from, the business leaders in Chicago coupled with hospital officials and physicians met during the Great Depression to find a solution to the dire problem of affordable health care for their community members.

In 1936, these men pooled their resources and launched the Chicago Plan for Hospital Care - the first health insurance policy for the company came into effect on January 21, 1937.

This concept quickly caught on in Chicago and the Hospital Service Corporation grew quickly with 36,000 members in the first six months. Hospital Service Corporation adopted the symbol of Blue Cross in 1939 and then Blue Shield in 1947.

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans (for hospital services and physician services respectively) operated independently until 1975 when they merged as the Health Care Service Corporation. By 1982 all of the Blue Cross plans were merged with the Chicago based plan under the name Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. Other Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans joined the Health Care Service Corporation - Texas in 1998, New Mexico in 2001 and Oklahoma in 2005.

The Health Care Service Corporation is an independent license holder of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield association. The association on the whole provides health insurance coverage to more than 11.5 million members around the country and offers a wide variety of health insurance plans, life insurance products and related services.