LOUISVILLE, Ky., Nov. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield today announced that its associates have pledged more than $880,000 to support not-for-profit organizations in Kentucky in 2008 as part of the company's Associate Giving Campaign.

"The generosity shown by our associates during this campaign highlights their integrity and commitment to improving the community where they live and work," said Deborah Moessner, president of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Kentucky. "I am grateful for the incredible generosity of our associates and am proud that we are living the mission of our organization in every day ways."

The funds pledged by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's associates will receive a 50 percent match from the WellPoint Foundation, the parent foundation of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation, increasing the total to more than $880,000. These funds will help hundreds of not-for-profit organizations fulfill their missions. The WellPoint Foundation is one of the nation's largest corporate foundations with net assets of nearly $200 million.

Across the country, associates of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's parent company, WellPoint, Inc., pledged more than $15 million, surpassing the national goal of $13.8 million. The 50 percent match from the WellPoint Foundation will raise the total to more than $23 million.

During 2007, the WellPoint Foundation and its subsidiary state foundations funded $20 million in grants to numerous programs across the country. In many instances, the foundations provide emergency grants to support communities affected by disasters.

"Through our Foundations and our social responsibility programs, we put the full weight of the company into finding lasting solutions to the social issues we understand best-health care quality, affordability and accessibility," said Caroline 'Caz' Matthews, president of the WellPoint Foundation. "In the end, this focus, guided in part by our new State Health Index, which helps us identify the most critical health care needs in the state, allows us to have a measurable and sustainable impact in the communities we serve."

About Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation

Through charitable grant making, the Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation promotes Anthem's inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield serves.

The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to reduce the number of uninsured as well as organizations and nonprofit charities that promote the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation.

The Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation is an affiliate of the WellPoint Foundation. To learn more about the WellPoint Foundation please visit www.wellpointfoundation.org.

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Source: Anthem Blue Cross And Blue Shield

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