Our story

Did you know that Minnesota was the first "Blue" health plan in the nation?

Our history began in 1933, when seven St. Paul hospitals teamed up to form the “Minnesota Hospital Association.” It became the country’s first prepaid healthcare network. An early ad featured a nurse with a blue cross armband on the sleeve of her uniform. This was the birth of our iconic logo. We became the first health plan to be known as “Blue Cross.”

Less than 10 years later, the name and symbol were adopted by the national Blue Cross Association. Blue Cross went on to become one of most recognized and trusted healthcare brands in the world.

Today we are the leading health plan in the state

  • We have more members, the largest network of doctors, and more products and services than any other health plan in Minnesota.
  • Our more than 2.5 million members can be found in every Minnesota county, all 50 states and on four continents.

Our mission is to pave the way for everyone to achieve their healthiest life

We want our members to have access to healthcare that is easy to use. And we want that healthcare to be affordable and available when it's needed.

Learn about our mission, vision and values 

We are a nonprofit Minnesota company

  • Our resources are used to serve stakeholders, not shareholders. Approximately 90 cents of every healthcare dollar we collect pays for our members’ healthcare.
  • Although structured as a nonprofit, we pay more than $100 million in taxes and assessments on an annual basis.
  • We provide more than $250 million in wages to our state economy each year.
  • Approximately 3,500 employees work for us throughout Minnesota. 

Learn more

See what community teams we support
See our Report to the Community
See news about Blue Cross

Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association is an association of independent Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield plans.
 

Learn more about Blue Cross

Every day, in every way, we strive to serve our community by staying true to our mission.