Kaiser Permanente was founded in 1943 by Henry J. Kaiser and physician Sidney R. Garfield.  When Garfield first started Kaiser Permanente he had a small room and a few hospital beds at  an onsite facility located in the Mojave Desert.  His first patients were workers from the Los Angeles Aqueduct.

Henry J. Kaisers’ next project was the Grand Coulee Dam where he brought 6,500 workers to build the Dam.  Garfield started a health care facility that provided prepaid group services for the workers.

Dr. Garfield, moved his innovative health care system, to San Francisco, California and formed an association with Henry J. Kaiser that has now evolved into the organization that is here today.  On October 1, 1945, the Kaiser Permanente health plan was officially open to the public.  Currently, Kaiser Permanente is the largest not-for-profit organization in the United States.
 
In September, 2000, Kaiser Permanente partnered with Virtual Enterprise.  This partnership was created in order to offer quality health care insurance to all the Virtual Enterprise participants.