The Evolution Of Health Care

The paper will discuss the evolution of health care in America and how it has affected the health care system today. It will discuss the advancements made in technology and medical services that have evolved over two centuries. It will review how health care delivery has evolved and impacted today’s health system. The delivery of medical services has changed over many decades. The culture, social economics, and political views, have influenced society on how the medical services and advancements in medical technology have evolved. The three phases of health care structural change is preindustrial era, postindustrial era, corporate era (Shi & Singh, 2013).

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,

emerge as a professional entity until the beginning of the 20th century, with the progress in biomedical science. Since then, the

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

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.

Over the recent years, healthcare in the United States has drastically changed. The industry has experienced continuous growth, due to an array of events. The introduction and passing of Affordable Care Act, the increase of Baby Boomers (individuals born between 1946-1960) reaching the age of retirement, and potential passing of immigration inclusion laws has impacted and will continue to impact America’s healthcare landscape. Numerous factors associated with the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal aspects are key indicators into the potential success of the industry.

6). We are able to see how these significant events impact us even now. As our health care system continued to evolve, the 1990s saw health care delivery and financing primarily controlled by indemnity insurers, nonprofit hospitals and private physicians (Gabel, 1997, p. 134). Health insurance premiums grew by 20% and enrollment grew from 36.5 million to 58.2 million (Gabel, 1997, p. 134). With the growth of managed care plans, hospitals began to merge and the development of large physicians group practices evolved (Kongstvedt, 2016, p. 14). These roots of managed care grew to give us the health care system we are familiar with now.

The health care system in the United States has been growing and changing for years and will continue to do so for years to come. The one constant in the Unite States health care system is change and evolution through evaluations of those changes. If there had not been unrest with the level and provisions of care in the early 1970s Managed Care may have never been introduced. President Nixon signed legislation in 1973 termed, Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act of 1973. This pivotal event in the health care system allowed for a change from the fee for service model to a comprehensive range of medical or health

I believe that that managed care impacted the historical evolution of health care. When managed care was developed in the United States the main purpose was to improve medical care outcomes as well as efficiency. Westert, G. P., “During the second half of the twentieth century, managed care developed in the United States as a mechanism for constraining the growth of health care costs by controlling the delivery system” (2005). The federal government decided to offer managed care options through Medicare because of the growing expenses that the elderly have to through Medicare. Westert, “Reductions in health care utilization brought about by managed care in the western United States have been adopted in other areas of the nation and the world” (2005).

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

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.

The Managed Care System was introduced to control the cost for health services provided to individuals. Managed care controlled who the consumer would seek health services from, as well as the cost of the service provided. MCO’s became deep-seated when President Nixon signed the Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) Act in 1973. The first type of managed care used were HMO’s and the purpose was to keep healthcare costs within limits. Physicians of course were against the Act. This would now control the fees that the physician would charge for the services they provide to the individual. As Managed Care evolved and increased in the amount of managed care plans that became available over the years. Physicians preferred guaranteed income as oppose

The future and direction of health care has been the topic of discussion amongst politician and U.S citizens today. There are several challenges surrounding the future and strategic direction in which health care should be heading. Accreditation, quality of health care and organization’s compliance; access to health care, maintaining a skilled workforce, information technology and pay for performance are some of the challenges that currently presenting itself in healthcare today. If health care is not dealt with appropriately it will have a significant effect an impact on the strategic direction in the future and direction of care.

In this paper there will be a brief discussion of three forces that have affected the development of the U.S healthcare system. It will observe whether or not these forces will continue to have an effect on the U.S healthcare system over the next decade. This paper will also include an additional force, which may be lead to believe to have an impact on the health care system of the nation. And lastly this paper will evaluate the importance of technology in healthcare.

With a growing population along with limited resources and food, Thomas Malthus predicted that the world would start to fall apart. Malthus inferred that over time, the rapidly increasing population growth would result in incidents of mass pollution and diminishing resources. In result of these issues, he implied that they would lead to larger issues, such as famine, disease, war, population collapse and ultimately, great suffering. With the current world population of seven billion, the world has reached and surpassed the carrying capacity, which will have negative impacts on humans. This is conveyed through the improving standard of life, depletion of resources and environmental issues.