40 Under 40 - 2025

Rebecca D’Amico is responsible for getting the 33 CEOs of separate Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance companies to agree to a common goal.

“It's difficult in some ways to figure out where and how we align," said D'Amico. Then, she said, the association — a nonprofit that holds the rights to the Blue Cross brand — must "harness that scale and that power as a collective system."

D’Amico works with the heads of each insurer to develop a single strategy across the system. In 2021, her work led the association to create a master plan focused on health equity and affordability. Insurers revisit the project annually.

A focus on affordability drove the 33 companies to invest in the Synergie Medication Collective specialty contracting firm, D'Amico said. The work made Blue Cross plans the first to offer sickle cell gene therapy treatments as a covered health benefit.

Focusing on health equity inspired the association to invest more than $10 million in the Boys & Girls Club of America to address youth mental health needs. The investment will allow more than 5,000 centers to embed trauma-informed services into their operations by 2026, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said.

The investment is "really about saying, ‘Listen, this [mental health] crisis is bigger than us. It's bigger than the Blues. How do we help everyone in our communities and lift them up?’” D'Amico said.

— Nona Tepper