Health Care

26 Pages 6525 Words

A HISTORICAL LOOK INTO THE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
“Look into the past, for on its pages is written history of the future.” This remains true for our American health care system, since many past events have provided the framework for the system today. Therefore, to better understand the present, it is imperative to gape at the past. In 1787, Thomas Jefferson wrote:
Without health there is no happiness. And attention to health, then, should take the place of every other object. The time necessary to secure this by active exercises should be devoted to it in preference to every other pursuit. I know the difficulty with which a strenuous man tears himself from his studies at any given moment of the day; but his happiness, and that of his family depend on it. The most uninformed mind, with a healthy body, is happier than the wisest person in poor health.

The purpose of “health care to promote health” appears to be true. Let us define what health care is. Kovner points out three aspects of health care. First, those services delivered by personnel engaged in medical occupations, such as physicians and nurses, plus other personnel working under their supervision. Secondly, health care services are the physical capital, such as hospitals, in which services are provided. Third, health care services are the other goods and services from drugs to medical information systems, used by the personnel in the facilities to provide the services. Now that we have a more applicable understanding of the meaning of health care, let us examine the many important phases we have experienced in the United States health care system. The first phase started in the mid-nineteenth century, when the first large hospitals, such as Bellevue Hospital in Boston, began to prosper. The development of the hospitals symbolized the institutionalization of health care for the first time in the United States. The second significant hist...