Medicare

6 Pages 1398 Words

Medicare and Medicaid have been detrimental to our countries health care system since the start of the Hill Burton Act that was started in 1946. The Hill Burton Act was formally known as the Hospital Survey and Construction Act of 1946. The Legislation from this act provided the public with funding for the start of Hospital construction. Throughout the next few years the Hill Burton Act began to change for the expansion of Hospitals all over the country. The states were given grants to fund these projects in order for the hospitals to keep up with everyday life and technology and as the years went by the cost of health care rose.
Once the 1960’s came along the need for health care became a bigger priority in people’s lives. The third party system was originated at this time and basically meant that if somebody is covered by the “third party system” they were either covered by their local medical insurance company or the government. The terms second and first party also came into play defining them being the second party is the group who is providing the health care and the first party are people like you and me. As the third party system became more popular more individuals and families saw health care as a vital resource that was at their disposal and because of this people took advantage of this privilege.
When the growth of the third party system of paying for heath care, the cost of health care rose even more rapidly than before because patients enjoyed increased access to care without out-of-pocket expenses (Mckenzie, Pinger, Kotecki). This statement in the Community Health issues book basically puts the public into two categories of health care. The first category is the stated in the previous sentence with people who already have insurance and have access to care when necessary. These individuals have health care either because they pay for it or their job includes some type of benefits. The second category of people ...