This first complete history of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield system tells the story of America's largest and oldest health insurers, from their beginnings to the turbulent 1990s. Drawing on extensive company archives, Robert Cunningham III and Robert M. Cunningham, Jr. trace the development of the Blues' system and show how its management has pursued the goal of health care coverage over seven decades of social and economic change. Highly readable, this volume will interest all those who are concerned with the past and future of American health care.