The Post-War Period

Prior to this shift, government involvement in health insurance services was minimal since it seemed to be under control by the non-profit sector. There didn’t seem to be an urgent need to control or universalize health care at the time. The government’s first interest in the health care industry sparked when employers began providing health care benefits as a competitive advantage for recruiting workers back into the workforce during World War II. To help cope with the rising unemployment rates, the government would offer tax incentives to employers providing these benefits. (add Quote)

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.

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.

During the 1910’s the American Association for Organized Labor (AALL) banned together to have the first talks about acquiring social insurance, but when the United States entered into the war in 1917, combined with doctors and other organizations put a stall on the social insurance idea.

A series of events has recently occurred to cause the passage of PPACA. Economics are explicitly linked to health care. In the United States, health care coverage is provided primarily through an employer-based system. This system began in the depression era when pay was federally frozen. Companies, in an attempt to lure scarce workers, used benefits packages including health care as bait. Described as a “uniquely American” “private social security” health care system, the employer-sponsored system is the “cornerstone” of United States health care system (Blumenthal, 2006). This system has left many un- or under-insured. Blumenthal states (2006), “The United States’ dependence on employer-sponsored insurance means that the protection of its citizens against the costs of illness depends directly on the ability of private businesses to manage and absorb health care expenses that have defied all efforts to contain them.” Recently, economic downturn and the need to reduce expenses to better compete on the global market has caused many companies to both reduce their insurance benefits package and their work force causing many to lose their health care coverage. The employer-based system merged with the economic downturn, unaffordable health care costs for businesses, and

The Great Depression in the 1930’s had been followed by a period of growing income inequality and a shrinking middle class. Due to the economic conditions, Income disparities in access to health care had grown much worse, medical costs were rising, and sickness became a leading cause of poverty. Since few people could afford to pay for medical care welfare agencies began to help pay for medical costs for the poor. By “1940, the population of the united states was 132 million with only 12 million – a little less than 10 percent covered by some form of health insurance”( Scofea, 1994). The growing concern of the increase in the number of people who are uninsured led to the enactment of the Stabilization act in 1942, which imposed wage and price controls but at the same time permitted the adoption of employee insurance plans. The federal government enacted this legislation to prevent employers from raising wages in order to compete for scarce labor in response to the inflation pressure of the wartime economy. Furthermore, the government provided private insurers with a new market for their products by permitting employers to offer health insurance to their employees. In the years that followed, the government passed several regulations that helped reinforced the institutionalization of the employment-based system of health insurance that

Tears fall throughout the night; a mother living in Belfast, England has been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She knows that with the rate of people being admitted everyday to a hospital, it will be months, even years, before she receives treatment; by then, it may be too late. We’ve been spoiled with top notch healthcare in the United States and, upon our fairly well-off thrones, we can’t even begin to fathom the enormous sorrow and agony that these people must face. That’s why in 1906, the American Association of Labor Legislation (AALL) began the first campaign for health insurance for an ailing working class. Later in 1945, President Harry Truman proposed the idea of ‘Universal Heathcare’, which would grant all citizens the access to free

The creation of a national health insurance program has been a political conversation since the Early 1940s. In 1940, approximately nine of ten Americans lacked health

First, there have been many attempts for universal health care in America’s short history. The first push started in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s ; this along with fair labor practices had been an important issue to the laborers of the progressive era and many believed that the government and employers should have some shared responsibility for the people’s well-being, according to Physicians for a National Health Program ( PNHP) (2016). This rise from employees did not result in universal health care, but it was the beginning of the labor movement that involved unions obtaining some basic labor laws and forced employers to take some responsibility for

Since signed into law on March 23, 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has been the central influence of the type of health care in the United States. It put into place a system that requires citizens to buy private insurance policies, but it also provides partial subsidies for those policies. This act is the culmination of years of American health care debates and reforms dating all the way back to the early 1900’s. Health care got its start with the rise of industrialization, with a growing workforce came a demand for stable wages that would be safe from the risk of illness. Spanning from 1914 to 1920, the American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) “promoted a model state bill for employment-based sickness insurance” (Gordon 12).

If we look back at history, we can see the need for health care transformation. During the presidential campaign in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt has been quoted “No country can be strong if its people are sick and poor” (Houle & Fleece, 2011, para. 29). Although he was defeated, this triggered the deliberation as to how to best make available healthcare to the people (Houle & Fleece, 2011). In Europe, the social norm was to have Universal Health Insurance and they endorsed social welfare programs (“History of health care reform in the United States”). Because of this, progressives wanted the same program here in America (“History of health care reform in the United States”). In 1943 the Wagner-Murray-Dingell Bill with the purpose to ratify required insurance in the United States (Houle & Fleece, 2011). The Bill, however at the time did not pass because of the lack of support from President

During the beginning of this era, reformers had the support of President Theodore Roosevelt who thoroughly believed “that no country could be strong whose people were sick and poor”. In 1915, a bill was proposed by the American Association of Labor Legislation (AALL) that limited coverage to working class individuals whose annual income was less than $1200 a year and included hospital services, sick pay, maternity benefits, and funeral expenses (Palmer, 1999). This system was believed to “relieve poverty caused by sickness” and would “yield a net savings for society” that would benefit not only citizens but businesses as well (Toland, 2014). Opinions on the AALL bill were mixed. The American Medical Association (AMA) was included in the formulation of the bill, leading them to create a committee whose entire aim was to assist the AALL but a disagreement over physician payment led the AMA to redact their support (Palmer, 1999). The American Federation of Labor continuously spoke against universal health care, fearing that it would result in complete state supervision over citizen’s health and would undermine current worker unions and the benefits they provided. Within all of this was also the strong opposition of the private insurance industry which, oddly enough, rested on the inclusion of death benefits in the AALL bill which had

The image of post World War II America is, generally speaking, identified as an era of wholesomeness revolving around the nuclear family, the emergence of the suburban middle class and most importantly social conformity. This period was also marked as one of oppression towards those that did match the image of a good American citizen such as African Americans, working women, and homosexuals. All of these groups, more or less, were subjected to legislation that blatantly limited their freedoms as American citizens as well as demonization through the media and propagandist images and news stories. For these oppressed groups, the mid 20th century almost appeared to be a completely different world in comparison to the early 1900s when these restrictions weren’t in place.

Healthcare didn’t always exist in the United States. Before the 1920’s, most people didn’t have health coverage. Most people were treated at home and hardly anyone, except a few large employers offered healthcare. Everyone else paid out of pocket. As the population shifted from rural areas to urban centers, families lived in smaller homes with less room to care for sick family members (Faulkner 1960, p. 509). Increasing requirements for licensing and accreditation, in addition to a rising demand for medical care, eventually led to rising costs. By the end of 1920s, there was an increased demand for medical care and the costs of medical care increased.

During later part of the 19th century, health insurance was hot topic between liberals and conservative factors. President Harry Truman (1945-1953) highly supported the national health insurance. But after the Republicans took control of the Congress, they denied to act on it. An article in Physicians for A National Health Program (PNHP) said, “After Truman’s surprise victory in 1948, the American Medical Association (AMA) thought Armageddon had come. They assessed their members an extra $25 each to resist national health insurance, and in 1945 they spent $1.5 million on lobbying efforts which at the time was the most expensive lobbying effort in American history. They had one pamphlet that said, “Would socialized medicine lead to socialization