Health Care In The Twentieth Century

HEALTH PROTECTION PRICES and coverage have become a dominant force in almost everyone’s life over the period of the past fifty years. Before many workers change job , they must weigh the value of changes in health coverage . Many people are left out of the save market, either because they can’t get it or can’t afford it. Patients grouse that doctors don’t listen anymore and are afraid to slap their patients with a lawsuit for the slightest imperfection in care. Physicians are tired of struggling under mountains of paperwork from the government and insurance companies when all they want to do is treat patients.

The early years of shaped health care in America (1880-1930) saw the establishment of the medical job , both through the expanded duties and formal education of the physician and the growth of the hospital system. The beginning of the twentieth century also witnessed the beginnings of health insurance as a type of prepaying health care costs, and the American Medical Association’s (AMA) growing control over the medical marketplace.

By 1930, the United States had as many medical, nursing, and dental schools and hospital beds per unit of population as it has today. The Great Depression, nevertheless , slowed the expansion of health care facilities and personnel. Many Americans had solicitude they needed . Doctors tried to make allowances for patients in financial straits, but hospitals, with large fixed costs, had much less flexibility . Between 1929 and 1930, customary hospital receipts plummeted from more than $200 per patient to less than $60. Hospitals then began to turn to insurance ideas as a way to guarantee a steady cash flow by spreading the financial risk.

The first plan was introduced in 1929 at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas. By paying a monthly fee beforehand , a group of 1,500 school-teachers contracted with the hospital to provide care should they need it. The compensation was paid whether or not the individual teacher ever used the services.

In further time , groups of uncommercial hospitals in several towns organized multiple hospital insurance methods . These methods gave subscribers a choice of medical care providers and therefore attracted more patients, strengthening the income to the participating hospitals. This manifold hospital plan served as a model for Blue Cross, established in 1932 in Sacramento, California. These hospital plans changed the idea of insurance and forever changed the American health care system. Despite other forms of insurance, the primary purpose of these plans was not to defend users from large, unforeseen expenditures , but rather to keep hospitals in business by guaranteeing them a daily income. While these methods benefited buyers by giving them a predictable method of paying for their medical care, they contained serious flaws that would become increasingly apparent as our health care system developed.

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