Group Health Cooperative enrollment shoots up as Boeing Bust deepens in 1970.

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In 1970, as the Boeing recession known as the "Boeing Bust" continues on its economic nosedive, Group Health Cooperative enrollment shoots up. The effects of 60,000 laid off Beoing workers (added to workers laid off the previous year) ripples through King County, with King County Medical Society losing 100,000 members, and Group Health gaining 14,000 members. Many unemployed Boeing workers choose "group conversion" to Group Health to maintain health coverage at their own expense while they seek new jobs.

Group Health coverage was more expensive than that of King County Medical Society, but the coverage was more comprehensive. This promised a measure of security in insecure times. By the end of 1970, Group Health enrollment had reached nearly 136,000 enrollees.

Sources:
Walt Crowley, To Serve the Greatest Number: A History of Group Health Cooperative of Seattle (Seattle: GHC/University of Washington Press, 1995), 130.

By HistoryLink Staff, January 25, 2006

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Will the Last Person Leaving Seattle... billboard, 1971
Courtesy The Seattle Times