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Healthcare Essay

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Chapter 3

The Evolution of Health Services in the United States
Learning Objectives
To discover historical developments that have shaped the nature of the US health care delivery system
To evaluate why the system has been resistant to national health insurance reforms
To explore developments associated with the corporatization of health care
To speculate on whether the era of socialized medicine has dawned in the United States

“Where’s the market?”

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CHAPTER 3

The Evolution of Health Services in the United States

Introduction
The health care delivery system of the United States evolved quite differently from the systems in Europe. American values and the social, political, and …show more content…

Kaiser Family Foundation 2011). Cultural beliefs and values are strong forces against attempts to initiate fundamental changes in the financing and

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delivery of health care. Therefore, enactment of major health system reforms requires consensus among Americans on basic values and ethics (Kardos and Allen 1993). Ironically, American beliefs and values were not allowed a chance to play out in the political maneuvering that led to the passage of the
ACA of 2010 (see Chapter 13).
The growth of medical science and technology (discussed in Chapter 5) has also played a key role in shaping the US health care delivery system. Stevens (1971) points out that the technological revolution has been primarily responsible for bringing medicine into the public domain. Advancement of technology has influenced other factors, as well, such as medical education, growth of institutions, and urban development. Hence, American medicine did not emerge as a professional entity until the beginning of the 20th century, with the progress in biomedical science. Since then, the
US health care delivery system has been a growth enterprise. Debates over issues such as methods of financing health care, quality improvement, and the appropriate role
of

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