Impact Of The 18th And 19th Centuries On Today 's U.s. Healthcare System

Conklin, T. P. (2002, Fall). Health Care in the United States: An Evolving System. Michigan Family Review, 07(), 5-17. Retrieved from

rehend the PPACA, one must understand the history of the United States’ health care system. The most successful and known reform would be the passage of Medicare and Medicaid. President Johnson’s main objective with his program was to provide health insurance to those over 65 years old, who otherwise wouldn’t be able to receive coverage due to retirement or being financially unfit to purchase health insurance. It has since been expanded to cover those with disabilities, and lower income families (“Overview,” 2015). Brady (2015) examines President Clinton’s attempt to massively overhaul health care in the United States. His plan, the Health Security Act (HSA), required employers to offer health insurance to their employees, and mandated that every US citizen purchase health insurance. This plan would have most likely expand health insurance to many more Americans; however, many feared the large tax increases, restricted options for patients, and with the lack of general support for the bill, it failed in Congress and was never implemented (p. 628). President Clinton’s failed attempt at health care reform opened up the door to future reforms, and it even shared multiple similarities to the PPACA. Smith (2015) updates the history of the health care system in America stating that “In the mid-2000s, America’s uninsured population swelled to nearly 47 million, representing about 16 percent of the population” and how “16 million Americans […] were underinsured” (p. 2). People

Many forces shape our current healthcare system. Our cultural belief and values shape our views on our social, political, and economic exigencies. While our beliefs and values usually represent basic or core impressions of individuals in our society, they are constantly changing. Thus, they lend a sense of dynamism to our health care system. Our cultural beliefs and values also impact our sense of ethics, which also influences how we allocate our health resources and our sense of social justice, or lack of it. And although ACA represents a major reform the American health care system, history will tell us whether it survives after the next election cycles. Many of the forces in American health care that affected its evolution in the past are present today.

Over the course of our countries history, the delivery of our health care system has tried to meet the needs of our growing and changing population. However, we somehow seem to fall short in delivering our goals of providing quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to our citizens. The history of our delivery system will show we continuously changed the delivery of our system however never mange to control cost. If we can come up with efficient ways to cut cost, the delivery of quality care will follow.

What aspects and characteristics of American health care of the 18th and 19th centuries have had a major impact on shaping today’s U.S. health care system?”

Many people have argued that the Industrial Revolution was the largest, single event in the history of the United States that changed the daily lives of Americans who were living in this era. Prior to this era, most Americans lived in small rural areas. They either worked on farms, out of their homes, or in small shops using only hand tools and basic machinery. This period brought about a change from rural life to city life; simple tools and machinery were replaced with large, complex machinery; factories were built, providing new job opportunities for workers; and inventors were eager to introduce their new inventions. While no one is really sure what caused the Industrial Revolution or how it came to America, there are two theories.

The healthcare system prior to 1950 has gone through several major changes to make it better. For example surgery now is better than surgery in the 1800s because people have made discoveries to make surgeries easier, faster and more safe to have a better chance of success.

Health care has been inclined by several significant events that have occurred throughout history. Change is the primary focus on what has shaped health care and continues to by pain of improvement, and to focus on the importance of our population and their needs. Though there are several influences politics, finance, culture, technology, health trends, and religions they all play a major contribution towards shaping the healthcare field. (Shi & Singh, 2012) Throughout this paper we will present significant events that have changed and affected health care today, give details about how the historical evolution of health care

Before the industrial revolution started most of the population worked on farms or as craftsmen out in the countryside, not in cities. This was because there was no reason for people to live in cities as they offers little job opportunities or reason to. By the end of the revolution factories were mostly in the cities and they were becoming so overpopulated disease ran rampant and houses were overflowing with people. This was because people went to the cities to work in the factories who employed hundreds of workers per factory. This caused the populations of the cities to skyrocket and for cities become very important parts of modern society.

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.

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.

There was a trodden in China in the old days, if a doctor wasn’t performing well and his patients either died or were not benefiting from the treatment a lantern was hung outside his home. A doctor was not just there to treat a patient, he was meant to help him stay healthy. Too many lights outside the house meant bad business for the doctor. That’s a simple but effective way of making people aware where to go or not go if you need health care. In today’s world, when the stress of modern lifestyle is churning out more patients than successful individuals it’s not easy to find out or identify where would you get good healthcare services.

Everyone has their own views on what they think the United States healthcare system should consist of. Consequently, the healthcare system has been flawed for many years and does not plan to change anytime soon. According to Luft (2006), “rapid and wide-reaching technological innovation, the ready access to care for the insured, and clinical and patient autonomy” (p.1). These are some of the strengths the US healthcare system are proficient in providing. In contrast, the weaknesses of the healthcare system outweigh the system’s strengths. Luft (2006) examined and acknowledged the following:

The future of healthcare if left as is, the system will falter and eventually, a new reform will be realized as necessitous (Garman, Butler , & Brinkmeyer, 2006). When the system proposed fail to meet

Health care in the United States is complex system that impacts each and every person living in our country. Tremendous advances in understanding disease etiology, diagnosis, treatment and diagnostic testing have transformed our health care system over the last few decades as did the rising cost of health care. Additionally, the number of uninsured or underinsured Americans continued to grow, prohibiting our population the opportunity to benefit from the aforementioned advancements. Geyman (2015) argues that upon the inception of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 the United States had roughly 50 million uninsured Americans. The federal government has made several attempts to decrease the number of insured Americans while improving quality and decreasing cost. The Affordable Care Act is the most recent attempt to solve these profound issues. Hospitals have long been the epicenters for medical care however this newly passed legislation has resulted in more collaborative care across the disease spectrum. This essay will highlight the historical development of hospitals in an addition to current health care reforms impact on the hospital system.