Nursing Insurance Partnership

Lillian Wald, 1867 – 1940

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"The year 1909 marked an important era in visiting nursing. In that year, at the suggestion of the Settlement, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company undertook the nursing of industrial policy-holders, employing our nurses to care for these patients. They, thereby, contributed an enormous impetus to education in hygiene in the homes, and the treatment of the sick, on the only basis that makes it possible for the person of small means to receive nursing without charity, namely through insurance." 

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Wald hoped to expand health care accessibility through alliances with private corporations as well as governmental institutions. In 1909, Henry Street and Metropolitan Life became partners in an effort to provide quality health care to employed workers. Wald's efforts inspired hundreds of other insurance companies to initiate similar projects.