Health Care In The 1950's

Universal Health Care is defined as the belief that all citizens should have access to affordable, high-quality medical care (Anderson, 2013). Currently there are 46 million that do not have health coverage in the United states and this would drastically increase to 72 million if a health reform was not passed (The Economic Case for Health Care Reform, 2012)Why the United States is the last to adopt this government mandated insurance coverage, is possibly one of the most widely asked question around the nation. This, however; is all in the process of changing and will be completed by 2014 with the passing and implantation of Obama-care. There are three systems or levels of coverage under Universal Health Care; Single Payer, Two-Tier,

During the 1960s, health care was one of the fastest-growing industries. Medically helping people was a the primary motivator of medical practitioners, but the increasing salaries was another. In 1969 the average net salary for a medical practitioner was $32,000. Thus, thanks to money motivation in the 1960s, the medical field rapidly expanded with new innovations and technology in order to help people. The decade was an important time in the medical field, and the benefits grew parallel with the costs.

The U.S. healthcare system is remarkably complex, and even healthcare workers struggle to understand it. The U.S. population gets health coverage by government programs, employers, and private insurance. Notably, because of the complexity and fragmentation of the health care system, there is a percentage of the population that remains uninsured. According to CNN Money, the uninsured rate in the U.S. dropped from 18.2% in 2010 to 10.3% in 2016, this drop was under Affordable Care Act(ACA) (). The goal of the ACA was not to give health coverage to all the uninsured population, rather it was to try to decrease the percentage of the population that remained uninsured(). There is a lot of inequality in the distribution of health among the U.S. population

Health care spending in the United States of America as a percentage of the economy has reached astonishing heights, equating to 17.7 percent. This number is shocking when compared to other counties; in Australia health care is 8.9 percent, in United Kingdom 9.4 percent, in Canada 11.2 percent. If the American health care system were to hypothetically become its own economy, it would be the fifth-largest in the world. While these statistics sound troubling, they lead us to look for answers about the problems surrounding our system. The first health insurance company was created in the 1930s to give all American families an equal opportunity for hospital care and eventually led to a nationwide economic and social controversy that erupted in the 1990s and continued to be shaped by the government, insurance companies, doctors, and American citizens. In this paper, I will go in to detail about the various opinions regarding the controversy, the history behind health insurance companies, and the main dilemmas brought out by the health care crisis. Greedy insurance companies combined with high costs of doctor visits and pharmaceutical drugs or the inefficient hospitals all over America can only describe the beginning to this in depth crisis. Recently, the United States health care industry has become know for the outrageous costs of insurance models, developments of various social and health services programs, and the frequent changes in medicinal technology.

The US has recently adopted a healthcare policy aimed to get more Americans insured. This policy is named the Affordable Care Act in 2010. “In 2013 there were 42 million uninsured individuals in the United States. “(The Common, pg. 153) There has since been increase in individuals who are covered either by private insurance or by Medicaid/Medicare which had a coverage increase with the new policy. It is believed that millions of people will now have health insurance compared to previous years.

Citizens in America obtain healthcare either through an employer, Medicare, or ,for the forty-five million, out-of-pocket. The number one in healthcare, Japan, uses the Bismarck model system- healthcare through insurance. America is almost the same, except the Bismarck insurance insures everyone without making a profit. Japan has more privately owned hospitals than America. This model can be funded several different ways for cost-control. The reason we have not changed our healthcare system is because of federal debt. Half of the health care costs are paid by the government. This debt will be America's downfall, but also the healthcare reform it so desperately

Many of the uninsured or underinsured are low-income or working families. According to the Kaiser foundation, “…adults are more likely to be uninsured than children. People of color are at higher risk of being uninsured than non-Hispanic Whites” See Appendix 1 (Kaiser Foundation, n.d.). Many Americans therefore go without needed health care each year due to the cost alone. These are the people with chronic diseases that need preventative services that may prove to reduce cost in the long run. With the economy failing the added depression and stress helps to hinder good health.

For too long, the American public was held hostage by predatory insurance companies. These companies used their power and privilege to keep their companies afloat while ensuring that much needed medical care was out of reach for a majority of the American public. Citizens were subjected to rules, regulations and policies that proved to be detrimental to their needs. Individuals with pre-existing medical conditions were denied care or were made to pay very expensive premiums. Policies were cancelled if additional medical conditions were identified and policies offering the bare minimum of coverage, were expensive preventing individuals from being able to afford health insurance. Americans over the age of 50 found it impossible to obtain quality insurance without paying way too much in premiums. Policies were denied for reasons that benefitted the insured. The result was that many Americans were uninsured, underinsured and when medical situations occurred, citizens were not able to obtain the proper treatment and care. This also placed a strain on the economy because individuals would go to the emergency rooms for treatment and not pay their bills resulting in the increase in premiums. The cycle continued, with bills not paid and premiums increased. This caused the

Before the Affordable Care Act, 50.7 million Americans (16.7 percent) were uninsured. The main reason for this was money. The majority of these uninsured American families simply couldn’t afford health insurance and those who did have insurance spent a good chunk of their income to pay for it. The percentage of Americans who were covered by employment-based health insurance (the most popular form of insurance at the time) was the lowest it had been since 1987 when the first statistics on

Basic changes were needed in the way Americans got health coverage. Trying to figure out what it was going to cost them starting in 2014, when major parts of the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare”, went into effect was the challenge. The four main ways Americans experience healthcare once the Health Reform Law was fully in effect were coverage by an employer, the government, buy it themselves or have none. About half of Americans get insurance through their jobs. About one third through the government like Medicare and Medicaid. About one in ten purchase insurance themselves. And still another 30 million, just under one in ten, no coverage at all.

Even with employer-sponsored programs and federal programs for those who qualify, many Americans are uninsured. Over 46 million Americans had no health insurance in 2006, and 86.7 million went without health insurance at some point in 2007 and 2008 (“Health Care Issues”). Why has the number of uninsured risen so drastically and why are employer-sponsored programs dwindling?

In the beginning of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the “healthcare system” was left in the hands of the states, which the states handed off to private and voluntary programs to deal with. In the presidential term of Teddy Roosevelt, 1901-1909, he felt that “no country could be strong whose people were sick and poor.” (Palmer 1999) He did however back health insurance as a whole. Roosevelt was not the one fighting for the health care though, there were outside forces that impacted health care. The American Association of Labor Legislation (AALL) led the campaign for health insurance. They drafted their first bill by 1915. This bill wanted to limit the coverage toward the working class and anyone who earned less than $1,200 a year including dependents. The American Medical Association (AMA) backed this bill because they felt the same way about coverage. The AMA did not speak for all doctors and those who opposed this backing spoke up. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) opposed the bill because they felt that it would weaken the unions and they wanted to maintain their strength. The private insurance

Health Care in America has recently changed by President Obama and reform and changes are heading our way. The Affordable health care act or better known as “Obama Care” is changing the way each American family access and our provided health care. America prior to the induction of this bill had about 15% of its population uninsured, and with one of the most profitable health care systems in place America leads the world in medical advances and technology. Those posses a serious problem, which is how does a country have such success in health care finically but its people remain sick? President Obama has changed that as of March 2010 by placing a Health care system that is going to change the current one to essentially benefit all

The U.S. is an industrialized nation that continues to be behind on providing health care coverage to all citizens. However, the German health care system came up with a plan that ensured all citizens are provided with some form of health care coverage; nevertheless, the U.S. continues to dispute health care reform and how to provide coverage to all citizens. “Health spending per capita in the United States is much higher than in other countries – at least $2,535 dollars, or 51%, higher than Norway, the next largest per capita spender. Furthermore, the United States spends nearly double the average $3,923 for the 15 countries ("Health Care Cost," 2011, table 1)”.

Throughout the first part of the 20th century there was little effort to promote health insurance, but in the second half of the 20th century healthcare became a major concern. Once, Medicare and Medicaid were introduced in 1965 the government along with its citizens took a major step in the progression of healthcare. From then, there was a shift in the privatization of healthcare. This forced many of the lower class to be without health insurance. In 1993, President Clinton with the best of in intentions failed at establishing a universal healthcare system in the United States. Finally in 2006, Massachusetts passed a law that would provide healthcare coverage for all of its state residents. In 2010 the