U.S. Census Bureau Daily Feature for April 21: First Health Insurance

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following is the daily "Profile America" feature from the U.S. Census Bureau:

FIRST HEALTH INSURANCE

Profile America — Friday, April 21st. Health insurance coverage has been a major topic of media and political interest for the past decade or so, but the concept goes back 170 years. The Massachusetts Health Insurance Company of Boston was organized on this date in 1847 to offer group policies with benefits in the form of income replacement. Whatever the merits of the venture, the company failed, and it took about a half century before health insurance began to catch on in the U.S. The most recent statistics for 2015 show that out of a population of about 319 million, some 290 million were insured, almost 209 million with private insurance plans. You can find current data on the country's economy by downloading the 'America's Economy' mobile application at www.census.gov/mobile.

Sources:
Kane's Famous First Facts, 4534
Incorporation:
archives.lib.state.ma.us/bitstream/handle/2452/94308/1847acts0214.txt?sequence=1&isAllowed=y 
Massachusetts Health Insurance Company/accessed 2/9/2017: www.randomhistory.com/2009/03/31_health-insurance.html 
Massachusetts Health Insurance Company benefits/accessed 2/9/2017:
https://books.google.com/books?id=bELnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA370&lpg=PA370&dq=massachusetts+health+insurance+company+of+boston+in+1847&source=bl&ots=S2R5xEHXpE&sig=gsAc-qu4QY1WroZuMKiiLj8-4pM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjxKq56IPSAhWBTCYKHREaAM44ChDoAQgkMAI#v=onepage&q=massachusetts%20health%20insurance%20company%20of%20boston%20in%201847&f=false
Health insurance industry/accessed 2/8/2017: www.emaxhealth.com/1275/72/33689/look-history-health-insurance-america.html 
2015 insurance coverage:
https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/demo/tables/p60/257/tableA2.xls

Profile America is produced by the Center for New Media and Promotion of the U.S. Census Bureau. Statistics and accounts drawn from cited non-Census sources are employed for illustrative or narrative purposes, and are not attested to by the U.S. Census Bureau. These daily features are available as produced segments, ready to air, on the Internet at http://www.census.gov (look for "Audio" in the "Library" pull-down menu). 

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SOURCE U.S. Census Bureau