It was during the Depression that hospitals band- ed together to offer prepaid coverage to citizens. Prepaid hospital coverage was a way for hospitals to avoid the financial failure that befell the banking industry. The approach worked so well that doctors followed suit a few years later and Blue Cross Blue Shield organizations were born. Little did anyone know that the seeds for runaway costs eighty years later had been planted. Prepaid, employer-provided insurance quickly dominated the health care landscape. Subsequent action by the federal government in the 1950s to pro- vide a tax deduction for health insurance premiums helped solidify the approach. To set the system in concrete, in the 1960s the federal.
