Medavie Blue Cross
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Medavie Blue Cross (French: Croix Bleu Medavie) is a non-profit Canadian medical care insurance company headquartered in Moncton, New Brunswick.
Affiliated with the Canadian Association of Blue Cross Plans, Medavie Blue Cross traces its history to E.A. van Steenwyk's 1933 creation of the Hospital Service Association of Minnesota, which became known as Blue Cross.
Blue Cross eventually found its way into Canada, which had a private health care system at that time, and the Maritime Hospital Service Association was established in 1943, which became known as the Maritime Blue Cross - Blue Shield Association in 1954. With the creation of Canada's publicly funded universal health care system in the 1960s, the Blue Cross organizations began to evolve, providing travel insurance and individual health plans to supplement the publicly funded health care provided by each province.
In 1986, the company renamed itself Blue Cross of Atlantic Canada and was headquartered in Moncton. The name was shortened to Atlantic Blue Cross Care (or just Atlantic Blue Cross) in 1999 when it merged with Maritime Medical Care.
The company became extremely successful during this period when several major contracts were awarded by large companies and public sector employers for their employee benefit plans, leading to the acquisition of the group business sectors of Ontario Blue Cross and Quebec Blue Cross. This necessitated a more bilingually appropriate name, so Medavie Blue Cross or Croix Bleu Medavie was adopted in 2003 and officially implemented in 2005.
Medavie is a bilingual portmanteau which includes the terms "medical" and "to life" and describes the company's products, which include medical and life insurance.
