Week 1 Discussion 2: Revolutionary Influences 200 words total Prior to beginning work on this discussion, review your textbook chapters for this week and read the article The History of Healthcare Quality: The First 100 Years 1860–1960 and review Healthca

1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s

American Medical Association (AMA) becomes a powerful national force.

In 1901, AMA reorganizes as the national organization of state and local associations. Membership increases from about 8,000 physicians in 1900 to 70,000 in 1910 -- half the physicians in the country. This period is the beginning of "organized medicine."

Surgery is now common, especially for removing tumors, infected tonsils, appendectomies, and gynecological operations.

Doctors are no longer expected to provide free services to all hospital patients.

America lags behind European countries in finding value in insuring against the costs of sickness.

Railroads are the leading industry to develop extensive employee medical programs.

American hospitals are now modern scientific institutions, valuing antiseptics and cleanliness, and using medications for the relief of pain.

American Association for Labor Legislation (AALL) organizes first national conference on "social insurance".

Progressive reformers argue for health insurance, seems to be gaining support.

Opposition from physicians and other interest groups, and the entry of the US into the war in 1917 undermine reform effort.

Consistent with the general mood of political complacency, there is no strong effort to change health insurance.

Reformers now emphasize the cost of medical care instead of wages lost to sickness - the relatively higher cost of medical care is a new and dramatic development, especially for the middle class.

Growing cultural influence of the medical profession - physicians' incomes are higher and prestige is established.

Rural health facilities are clearly inadequate.

General Motors signs a contract with Metropolitan Life to insure 180,000 workers.

Penicillin is discovered, but it will be twenty years before it is used to combat infection and disease.

The Depression changes priorities, with greater emphasis on unemployment insurance and "old age" benefits.

Social Security Act is passed, omitting health insurance.

Push for health insurance within the Roosevelt Administration, but politics begins to be influenced by internal government conflicts over priorities.

Against the advice of insurance professionals, Blue Cross begins offering private coverage for hospital care in dozens of states.

Penicillin comes into use.

Prepaid group healthcare begins, seen as radical.

During the 2nd World War, wage and price controls are placed on American employers. To compete for workers, companies begin to offer health benefits, giving rise to the employer-based system in place today.

President Roosevelt asks Congress for "economic bill of rights," including right to adequate medical care.

President Truman offers national health program plan, proposing a single system that would include all of American society.

Truman's plan is denounced by the American Medical Association (AMA) , and is called a Communist plot by a House subcommittee.

At the start of the decade, national health care expenditures are 4.5 percent of the Gross National Product.

Attention turns to Korea and away from health reform; America will have a system of private insurance for those who can afford it and welfare services for the poor.

Federal responsibility for the sick poor is firmly established.

Many legislative proposals are made for different approaches to hospital insurance, but none succeed.

Many more medications are available now to treat a range of diseases, including infections, glaucoma, and arthritis, and new vaccines become available prevent dreaded childhood diseases, including polio. The first successful organ transplant is performed..