Group Health Plan Inc history

In 1971, Senator Edward Kennedy proposed a single-payer plan that would have likely expanded nationalized healthcare to every American.

The role of chief of staff was recast as "medical director," a title first assumed by Doctor Turner Bledsoe in 1982.

The organization was formally incorporated on September 28, 1983.

In 1984, Group Health contracted with its first non-staff physicians to serve Bainbridge Island members and to help run a new Bellingham Medical Center.

The Cooperative made happier headlines in 1985 when Group Health member Joe Gardiner received the first transplanted heart in the Northwest at the University of Washington.

The slide in total enrollment continued in 1986 despite more kudos from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation and National Centers for Disease Control, and despite new long-term care coverage.

In 1987, the long-muffled call for health-care reform gained volume and clarity.

Enrollment began climbing again, and passed 350,000 in 1988, but the rising caseloads were a mixed blessing.

Finally, by 1994, the original Blue Cross organization, which had grown significantly, allowed for subsidiaries to become for-profit insurers.

In 1997, eHealthInsurance.com was founded to service the individual health insurance consumer online.

In 1999, Paul Zane Pilzer founded ExtendHealth, Inc. (originally Wellness Services, Inc.) to distribute Defined Contribution Healthcare and individual health insurance policies through employers.

In 2003, UnitedHealth Group, Inc. began consolidating several individual health insurance companies to expand its reach in the individual health insurance market including Golden Rule, American Medical Security, Oxford Health Plans, and PacifiCare.

After ExtendHealth was acquired, Paul Zane Pilzer founded Zane Benefits in 2006 to help small employers take advantage of new Defined Contribution Healthcare via its proprietary SaaS software platform now known as PeopleKeep.

ExtendHealth was acquired by Towers Watson in 2012 for $435 million.

Today, the number of uninsured in the United States has declined for the first time since 2013.

Today’s closing of the acquisition is the culmination of a process that began in December 2015, when Kaiser Permanente and Group Health Cooperative announced that a definitive agreement had been signed.

After the Affordable Care Act required all Americans to carry insurance in 2016, the uninsured number dropped by almost half to 28 million Americans.

Now, employer-based health benefits is the most common form of health coverage in America, with approximately 167 million people under 65 in 2017 receiving employment based healthcare.

Carrier RFP volume has reportedly decreased more than 50% from 2019, and there has been some aggressive pricing from carriers anxious to win business in this otherwise slow market.