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Would you believe Desert Center was the beginning of Kaiser Permanente ?! Nearby was one of the largest open pit iron mines in the world operated by Henry J Kaiser. Not long before the only doctor in the area went broke for non payment, so Henry J built a medical clinic, hired a doctor and had a nickel deducted from his workers paychecks to pay into a health system that later grew into Kaiser Permanente. -Rj
Henry J. Kaiser, whose division of the Six Companies, Inc. was building the stretch of the Colorado River Aqueduct through the Desert Center vicinity, visited Garfield at his clinic. His idea was to take a nickel a day out of each man's paycheck to prepay for that man's future medical treatments, should an injury occur while he was working. If the man wanted to be covered for the remainder of the day, after work hours, another nickel would be deducted. If the man had a wife and/or children he wanted to cover, this would cost another nickel. Within a short time, Garfield had a steady income stream and things improved for him immensely. When the aqueduct project was finished, Kaiser's next venture was the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, and he took Garfield with him to manage the workers' health care, but this time there were 50,000 men, not just 5,000.
The open pit iron mine was a later chapter of Desert Center.
Would you believe Desert Center was the beginning of Kaiser Permanente ?!
ReplyDeleteNearby was one of the largest open pit iron mines in the world operated by Henry J Kaiser. Not long before the only doctor in the area went broke for non payment, so Henry J built a medical clinic, hired a doctor and had a nickel deducted from his workers paychecks to pay into a health system that later grew into Kaiser Permanente. -Rj
Rj - Thanks for the interesting info!
DeleteFrom Wikipedia:
ReplyDeleteHenry J. Kaiser, whose division of the Six Companies, Inc. was building the stretch of the Colorado River Aqueduct through the Desert Center vicinity, visited Garfield at his clinic. His idea was to take a nickel a day out of each man's paycheck to prepay for that man's future medical treatments, should an injury occur while he was working. If the man wanted to be covered for the remainder of the day, after work hours, another nickel would be deducted. If the man had a wife and/or children he wanted to cover, this would cost another nickel. Within a short time, Garfield had a steady income stream and things improved for him immensely. When the aqueduct project was finished, Kaiser's next venture was the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam, and he took Garfield with him to manage the workers' health care, but this time there were 50,000 men, not just 5,000.
The open pit iron mine was a later chapter of Desert Center.
Anon@9:06am - Thanks for the info!
DeleteSounds like a plan. Imagine how well it would work nationally.
ReplyDelete