 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.