Roles in Healthcare

The government has played a big part in health care in history. Dating back to the colonial day’s health care was a benefit to being in the armed forces. At that time they also began to provide mental health care. In 1848 the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx had the idea that if employees were healthy they were more productive he decided to invest in the health care of staff and payoff for high productivity. 1900-1917 Workmen’s Compensation came around which required employers to pay for work related injuries and any missed time from work. 1929-1939 the depression left many so poor they did not have the money to pay their medical bills. At this time is when private health insurance surfaced the AMA did not approve but health care facilities were in favor of this as it was a way to get paid for services provided. One of the things that the government got involved in was when they discovered that poor young children and the older population did not have adequate access to health care. In the 1920s the politician did not care about the poor or elderly. Politicians felt that they were not going to benefit from helping them since they could not contribute to campaigns which means there were left without proper care. This is when the Medicare and Medicaid programs evolved to help the poor young and elderly population. This was known as the disjointed incrementalism or also known as the patch-work quilt approach. The liability for this is low with little impact. The government tends to get active in the health care industry when there is a market breakdown and the wellbeing of the people is in jeopardy. They do prefer it to be voluntary. For example Medicare Part B and Medicare Part D are not required participates can choose. Government involvement in health care is necessary I feel to ensure that all have the same medical care options and are not discriminated against. Health care is a very expensive need that everyone has and at the same

References: Fundamentals of U.S. Healthcare, Pages 8, 342-349