Essay on History of the U.S. Health Care Delivery System

Having access to quality healthcare is major part of one’s life however the cost of care has been on the rise over the past decades and continue to rise every day due to many situation such

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

As stated in the text, the United States provides a market based health system. Not until recently, the majority of the population could only access the insurance market through an employer based system. The ability to acquire insurance or gain access into the market outside of this medium was, in most cases, exorbitant for the average citizen. Nevertheless, government assistance programs like Medicare and Medicaid were made available to certain demographics of the population who qualified for these programs, such as citizens from the age

Our healthcare system needs major restructuring. Major improvements needs to begin with "all health care organizations, professional groups, and private and public purchasers should adopt as their explicit purpose to continually reduce the burden of illness, injury, and disability, and to improve the health and functioning of the people of the United States", (Crossing the ……, 2001).

In 1927, the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care was formed. This committee, which included health economists, physicians, and public health experts, researched the American health care environment and produced in 1932 a landmark report Medical Care for American People which revealed the significant discrepancy in costs, quality, and quantity of medical services in the United States. The primary concern was that health care system did not provide sufficient services to satisfy the health care needs of Americans, especially the minorities. Most people could not finance their health care needs themselves. Therefore, it was proposed to transform the system so that health care would be financed through insurance and taxation (Jost, 2012, p. 54). This initiative was widely supported and first insurance plans appeared.

Employee benefit plans proliferated in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Strong unions bargained for better benefit packages, including tax-free, employer-sponsored health insurance. Wartime (1939-1945) wage freezes imposed by the government actually accelerated the spread of group health care. Unable by law to attract workers by paying more, employers instead improved their benefit packages, adding health care.

The main historical developments that have shaped the health care delivery system in the United States. Knowledge of the history of health care is essential for understanding the main characteristics of the system as it exists today. For example, the system’s historical foundations explain why health care delivery in the United States has been resistant to national health insurance, which has been adopted by Canada and most European nations. Traditionally held American cultural beliefs and values, technological advances, social changes, economic constraints, and political

With incredibly high costs and a lack of high quality care, the multitier healthcare system of the United States has several major flaws. The system we have established has proven to no longer be practical in most, if not all major areas. Improvement initiatives (i.e. Oregon Health Plan, Leapfrog, Lean Manufacturing, and Pay-for-Performance) have been implemented into the current system, and all of them are under experimental measures to determine if they can bring pressure off of the healthcare system. With the increasing support for universal health coverage in order to decrease health disparities in the country, the current quality initiatives seem to be the best ways to improve the quality of care, reduce costs, and increase equality in healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to scope this social problem over the last 30-50 years and carefully examine and predict future problems that may arise if the system is not corrected promptly (Pushman & Chung, 2009).

After the end of Second World War, drastic measures were taken by the government of United States in the introduction of measures which allowed the start of revolution in the overall healthcare department, here private insurance companies showed their role as the major player in the overall US healthcare system. "Private sector played a major role in the early development of the US healthcare system". (Walshe, 2003).

Healthcare delivery system in the United States is different and unique from most of other developed countries around the world. Understanding of the history of healthcare is important to analyze the characteristics of the healthcare system today. I will be contrasting the delivery of healthcare in the United States, during the preindustrial era and today in this paper. The contrast will involve a framework that is given below.

The United States healthcare delivery system is a uniquely developed system that involves various features, components, and services. The US delivery system is massive, with total employment in various healthcare settings of qualified medical professionals that provide key functions to delivering quality healthcare. This essay will discuss the characteristics if the United States healthcare delivery system and how it could be developed from a free market perspective.

Shi, L., & Singh, D. A. (2015). Delivering Health Care in America: A Systems Approach (6th ed.). Boston: Jones and Bartlett.

During the Great Depression, the pre-paid services began to grow rapidly and BCBS began to provide doctors with reimbursement for services as well as providing discounted services to the hospitals (Lichtenstein, n.d.). This helped to increase the prompt payment and volume of need to these hospitals. While increasing the availability of need and the need for prompt payment after services, “several large life insurance companies entered the health insurance field in the 1930’s and 1940’s as the popularity of health insurance increased” (Northern California Neurosurgery Medical Group, Inc). While there was a huge increase after the Great Depression, it “inadvertently inspired the spread of employer-based health insurance, World War II accidently

True the United States health care system is unnecessarily fragmented because the health care system embodies both private and government insurance. The fragmented health care system in the United states as has been noted by many healthcare experts comes with various issues such health care disparities and high per capita health spending compared to other nations in the world. Nonetheless, the U.S. healthcare system is a system that is constantly evolving as patients are demanding for better care; and health care payers across the United States are demanding for enhanced cost containment initiatives from the healthcare organizations. To this end, in 1965, two notable governmental healthcare programs were launched, the aim was to make

In the United States as of the 21 century, working people, and their children were not guaranteed of medical care services. Organizations need solid laborers and many are in a battle to pay the increasing expenses of insurance premiums to cover employees. General medical coverage has served as a counter-patterned apparatus,