A hundred years ago, our healthcare system was pretty simple. There were no government regulations, and the few doctors there were, offered their services in exchange for whatever payment they could negotiate with their patients. Like most of our economy, it was a free market system. The term, “universal healthcare,” was non-existent.
Since then, with rapid advances in medical care, life expectancy has nearly doubled, but not without cost. Someone had to pay for research, for educating our medical professionals, for the manufacture of medicines, and for increasingly expensive treatments. To help defray those costs, which were ultimately passed on to patients, the concept of health insurance was born around 1929.
As it evolved, most working Americans acquired their health insurance through their employers, usually at reduced rates. Charitable foundations and various government programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP (State Children’s Health Insurance Program) were created for those who could not afford insurance.
The system was far from perfect. Though nearly every American had access to emergency care and basic healthcare, countless individuals without insurance were still unable to pay for life-saving, long term treatments or costly procedures. Still, that’s how our society survived for nearly the past hundred years.
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