Healthcare In Early America

In order to understand current health delivery services changes and formulate predictions, one must thoroughly comprehend the three developmental eras of the health care system. The evolution of our current health care system began in 1850, and has metamorphosed in three time periods, 1850 to 1900, 1900 to World War II (WW II), and WW II to 2009. Significant distinct and overlapping trends in disease prevalence, availability of health care resources, social organizations, and the public's knowledge and perception of health and illness and technology.

In the preindustrial era, 1800s, the United States fell behind other countries in health services. There was no medical training until around 1870 (Shi & Singh, 2013). Medical training began with students training under the supervision of physicians. Physicians saw patients by making house calls. Health care was delivered in a free market (Shi & Singh, 2013). No one had insurance so costs were out of pocket. For most Americans, this was a problem and some rural areas relied on folk medicine to heal the sick. The medical institutions during this era were not sanitized properly and nurses were not trained to practice safety and hygiene care. The government provided facilities for elderly, chronically ill patients, and clinics that offered free care.

The delivery of the U.S. healthcare system has changed drastically over the years from the inception of organized healthcare to today’s underdeveloped system. Prior to the 1920’s,

Medieval medicine was rooted in Ancient Greek practices. In 65 A.D., a Greek writer, Discorides, wrote a book, Material Medica. The book is about medical use of over five-hundred different plants. The book is translated into Hebrew and Arabic. Doctors in the Early Modern Era knew very little, and they used plants as the most important care and/or treatment. Due to unsanitary places and tools, many different diseases spread around Europe. Life was challenging during the Early Modern Era because of many diseases(Alchin). During the 1500s- 1600s, diseases overtook many people because doctors knew little, medicine was unknown, and there were many causes.

In 1943, Senator Murray, Edward Wagner and Congress man Dingell introduced the United States National Health Insurance bill, the acting president at the time, Roosevelt, did not endorse the bill but was supportive(5). The National Health Insurance wasn’t a new concept. In 1883, Otto von Bismark introduced an obligatory health insurance program(6). Its’ success expanded the concept of social insurance in Europe and America. Without official endorsement by the president and with the war still going on, the Wagner-Murray-Dingell bill died in committee.

In the early 1900’s medicine was making some steps closer into some great improvements for health and better understanding of the human body. Doctors with sufficient knowledge of the human body and cures for diseases and viruses were scarce. People were much more concerned with government and politics, than health and medicine, until one of the greatest and most grotesque lethal pandemics that’s struck the earth in human history. This pandemic the “Spanish Flu” spread so rapidly and had an extremely high mortality rate. This was caused by the close contact of humans and poor cleanliness and sanitation, and the host (virus) and the body taking harsh action

There are four evolutionary phases in healthcare. The first phase was the preindustrial era, which started in the middle 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. At this time, American medicine was not developing as fast as other countries; in Britain, France, and Germany, medical science and research was much more advanced than America. The postindustrial era began in the late 19th century, physicians in America were becoming more successful than others in the world. The third phase was the corporate era, which was marked by the growth of managed care, organizational integration, the information revolution and globalization. Finally, the fourth phase is the one in which we are in today, it is still fairly new and is characterized by the health care reform, which was brought about by the Affordable Care Act.

During the 1800s, there was several diseases affecting people left and right. “Diseases such as tuberculosis, smallpox, measles, chickenpox, cholera, whooping cough and influenza, among others” (“1800s: My Place, Diseases”) were some of the known diseases that would cripple or cause death to multiple people. Often Plantation owners and their slaves would have the same diseases, but plantation owners had a higher chance at surviving than slaves did. Doctors would prescribe the same treatment to anyone with a disease, usually natural herbs or bleeding out. Doctors from England that lived in America could no longer visit England for medical advice after the Revolutionary War, so several doctors started to improvise with many different remedies

In the early 1800s, both in Europe and in the United States, physicians with formal medical training began to stress the idea that germs and social conditions might cause and spread disease, especially in cities. Many municipalities created "dispensaries" that dispensed medicines to the poor and offered free physician services. Epidemics of cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, and yellow fever, and concerns about sanitation and hygiene, led many city governments to create departments of health. New advances in studying bacteria were put to practical use as "germ theory" became the accepted cause for illness. It was in the face of epidemics and poor sanitation, government-sponsored public health, and healthcare that private healthcare began to systematically diverge.

Healthcare industry in United States has been an important industry for a long time. It is one such industry that has representation from both public sector and private sector. The current health care system is segregated and fragmented in America. Some states have very effective and efficient healthcare system while some states lack the desired infrastructure. The evolution of healthcare system in USA can be traced back to 1750. The period from 1750 to 1849 is termed as preindustrial period where the care of sick people was primarily handled by families (Brian, 2010). The period of 1850 to 1969 is termed as postindustrial period which reflects the growth of organized medicine and systematic healthcare delivery.

Healthcare has made substantial progress over the course of history. 10,000 years ago, medicine consisted of herbal remedies found in the environment. There was no knowledge of formal diseases, therefore, there was also no knowledge of preventative care. Family members had no specialists to which to take other family members for healing. The main healthcare concerns involved illnesses spread through the communities through tainted water and food and poor living conditions (Williams & Torrens, 2008). At the time, there were no resources available to correct the poor living conditions or truly cure diseases, so seemingly acute illnesses would quickly turn into epidemics. During these times, “healthcare” was actually “self-care.”

The late nineteenth century saw a tide of immigrants entering the American borders who were no longer considered an effective work force. Rather, these newcomers were perceived as threats to the American population as they were considered responsible depleting jobs, housing, and other resources. With the simultaneous rise of insane asylums, professionals increasingly targeted mentally ill immigrants as scapegoats for larger social and economic problems. This paper attempts to examine the manner in which professionals used the language of mental illness to redefine immigrants as threats to national prosperity, thereby lending “scientific” support to deportation policies that jeopardized both the place of immigrants in American society and, unintentionally, the nation’s economy.

In the early 1900’s, healthcare was aimed at protecting workers from lost wages and medical expenses while they were sick (Hoffman, 2003). President Truman proposed universal health insurance but it was seen as socialized medicine and the legislation never passed (Oberlander, 2012). He did manage to pass the Social Security Act of 1935 that later became the basis for Medicare and Medicaid (Hoffman C. , 2009).

According to Martocchio (2014), health insurance covers the costs of a variety of services that promote sound physical and mental health, including physical examinations, diagnostic testing, surgery, dental treatments, and corrective prescription lenses for vision deficiencies. More than two centuries ago, the presence of the health care system emerged when mining and railroad companies hired doctors to provide medical services to their employees. As a result of the catastrophic World War I, many health providers were left providing services with the prospect of not receiving payments for the services being rendered and many Americans faced with the financial burdens of these escalating health care costs. The essential for the development of a health care system was not established for no apparent reason. The health care system was developed due to the staggering number of Americans whom where unable to pay soaring medical bills.

The health care in the eighteen hundreds was a big problem in the 18th century? The plague, (a sickness) was no longer an issue. Smallpox and typhus were almost as bad, though, and there were also high death tolls from measles, scarlatina, diphtheria and tuberculosis, then called consumption. Particularly among the poor rickets and whooping