Health Insurance for Preventive Services

From the basic hospital expense benefit program that began in 1929 at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas, through the development of group insurance coverage for surgeon’s fees in 1938 and medical expense benefits in 1943, to the introduction of major medical expense benefits in 1949, the prevailing concept of group health insurance has been to spread individual economic risks of injuries and illnesses through the insurance principle. Exceptions to the idea of spreading the economic risk of illness were the addition of dental expense benefit plans in 1959 covering all types of dental services on a group basis; the addition of vision care expense benefits in 1964, and the development of Health Maintenance Organization beginning in 19732