Joyc Furtak
HLT-205
June 2, 2013
Daisy Savarirajan
U.S. Health Care Time Line Health care dates back almost to the beginning of time. Each new time period brought new procedures to us here in the United States. For some reason the United States fell behind as far as these new procedures went. Other countries were more developed health care wise. The same holds true for today. This is a brief time line of some of the health care eras we have seen here in the United States. From the days of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid era and up until the late 1800’s other countries, France, Germany and Great Britain to name a few, were way ahead of the United States in health care education and practice. This added to the fact that medical practices in the U.S. were considered primitive. Doctors were more a tradesman than a profession. The local barber could be the town doctor and dentist all rolled into one. There were barely any hospitals and no health care insurance at all. Health care services were paid for by each individual that needed the services. An apprenticeship was the main form of education and training around 1870. There was no University training given at this time. Although they were practicing physicians taking on the apprentices, these physicians had very little medical training themselves. In order to offer training to larger groups of interested candidates, the practicing physicians began opening medical school. Not only would they be able to make money as a practicing physician, they also got to charge a fee for going to these schools that would also add to their income. One thing was wrong, there still were no classrooms or schools they could use so they had to combine their students with other colleges. This also enabled them to group together with other physicians to create a faculty. By 1850 an estimated 42 “medical schools” were formed (Rothstein, 1972, p.91). (Shi, Singh) The 1900’s brought about some changes to our health care system. In 190, the AMA (American Medical Association). During the early years, membership in this organization, grew to an outstanding number of 8000 physicians in 1900 to 70,000 in 1910 (PBS.org Healthcare crisis timeline). These years would become known as the start of “organized medicine” (PBS.org) 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. The depression in the 1930’s brought about the Social Security Act. This, however, omitted health insurance. Blue Cross also started offering people hospital care insurance in several states. The 1940’s brought us the introduction of penicillin. President Truman tries to implement a single system for health care that would benefit all of America. The AMA abruptly turned his implementation down and actually referred as a “Communist plot” in the House subcommittee (PBS.org). The 1960’s brought us a rise in the number of people who are having a difficult time paying for health care insurance. This era also brought about Medicare and Medicaid by President Lyndon Johnson. There is an increase of medical professionals who have begun calling themselves specialist. During 1960, this grew from 55% to 69%. By the time the 1990’s rolled around, the cost of any kind of health care had a growth that was double the rate of inflation (PBS.org). Once again a federal health care plan fails in Washington. This era also brought about the use of human DNA, and by June of 1990, there were almost 150,000 reported cases of HIV/AIDS. No matter how you say it, we all need health care at one time or another. This includes anything from the common cold to a heart transplant. With all of the physicians in specialized medicine, there is no doubt that the cost will be high, no matter who is paying for it. In one way or another, the money for health care comes out of the working man’s pocket. What I don’t understand through all of this is, we work hard all of our lives and when the need for the Medicare benefits that we paid out of our own paycheck, why do we still have to pay for them? A Medicare premium comes out of the benefit check that we have worked for. We are paying double already for the price of our health care at this point. No matter how we want things to go, and IF our new Obamacare works out, every person will not be pleased with the outcome. I don’t think there will never be a 100% seal of satisfaction in health care costs.

References
Shi,Leiyu, and Singh, Douglas A., Essentials of the U.S. Health Care System, third edition, p. 55-56
Rothstein WG. American Physicians in the Nineteenth Century: From Sect toScience. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press; 1972.
http://www.pbs.org/healthcarecrisis/history.htm