1.What factors explain why the demand for the services of a professional physician was inadequate in the preindustrial era? How did scientific medicine and technology change that? During the preindustrial era medical practice was disorderly where there was no such a thing as profession, it was all just a trade. The medical procedures were very primitive, missing institutional core where no institutions were completely devoted to patient care and people mostly relied on their selves due to unstable demand. There was no medical education, even the college graduates had no scientific training. However, overtime scientific medicine and technology has influenced medical education, allowing medical services to be delivered in other settings rather …show more content…
Instead of relying on the outside business and companies or hospitals the medical professionals decided to grain corporate control of their practice based on the corporate practice doctrine. Allowing licensure alleviated the intense competition in medical practice. 3.Which conditions during the World War II period lent support to employer -based health insurance in the US? WWII caused wage freezes all over America, thus instead of employers raising the wages of the employees, they decided to provide health insurance for them. Later, supreme court passed bills supporting this idea through making insurance payments of the employer a nontaxable income. 4.On what basis were the elderly and the poor regarded as vulnerable groups for whom special government -sponsored programs needed to be created? Although, private insurance was available to everyone who was able to afford it, there were some people such as the elderly and the poor who could not afford it. Thus, they are more likely to have a high mortality rate. Also, private payers charged way more. To ensure delivery to the elderly and poor Medicare and Medicaid were created. 5.Discuss the main ways in which current delivery of health care has become
The concepts discussed within the article regarding medicalization and changes within the field of medicine served to be new knowledge for me as the article addressed multiple different aspects regarding the growth of medicalization from a sociological standpoint. Furthermore, the article “The Shifting Engines of Medicalization” discussed the significant changes regarding medicalization that have evolved and are evidently practiced within the contemporary society today. For instance, changes have occurred within health policies, corporatized medicine, clinical freedom, authority and sovereignty exercised by physicians has reduced as other factors began to grow that gained importance within medical care (Conrad 4). Moreover, the article emphasized
The doctoring profession draws its roots to the time even before the ancient Greeks and since then, it has grown
It has been said by many experts that there has been a surplus of physicians in the past, but that there will soon be a shortage of physicians. This shortage will have been instigated by many factors, and is predicted to have various effects on society, both immediate and long term. There have been proposed solutions to this shortage, but there is a fine balance to be found with these many solutions and factors. However, once this balance is found, the long-term mending of the physician shortage may begin.
During the economic growth that erupted during the World War II era, Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1942 as a direct attempt to combat excessive wartime profiteering by companies. In “One Nation, Uninsured”, Jill Quadagno revealed that an unexpected side effect of this law swiftly arose when employers decided to provide health benefits to their workers as a way to reduce paying the mandated government taxes on excess profits. By providing these benefits, many companies in the industrial sector were able to recruit new workers who were willing to accept slightly reduced wages in exchange for receiving tax-deductible benefit plans, along with satisfy the demands by trade unions to include fringe benefits in employment contracts. The symbiotic relationship that resulted when employers took on the burden of purchasing health insurance plans for their employees became the foundation for the American employer-based health insurance system which is still being used today.
Time- Doctors spent valuable time traveling to and from house calls. The time doctors spent traveling or gathering the proper equipment for the job became very time taxing.
Colleges didn’t accept many doctors for training. The training was usually offered to the upper class. Because of this, doctors were usually trained through apprenticeships. Doctors were considered highly trained for this time period. Even though more doctors were being trained, they weren’t always available. Many people lived too far away to have access to doctors. Some didn’t have access because of beliefs or social customs.
Unlike today, the Ancient Roman doctors received no respect, because they were considered to be fraudilant. This reputation was caused by the doctors magical tricks, and the lack of useful treatments. The job required minimal training, as they only had to apprentice with their senior. Thus, many free slaves and people who had failed at everything else filled this profession. Some did try to find new remedies; however, others used medicine to con people. Public surgeries were done to attract audiences as an advertisement. Doctors would even become beauticians providing perfumes, cosmetics, and even hairdressing. When wives wanted their husbands gone, they would say, ¡§put the patient out of his misery¡¨ and the doctors would be the murderers. However, as wars began to break out, there were improvements bec...
Currently in the United States, acquisition of affordable health insurance plans through employers and private corporations is one of the main topics in the political landscape between liberals and conservatives. The traditional way of obtaining health insurance is either by subtracting a certain amount of payout from one’s salary/paycheck or pay out of pocket. However, many people do not have access to health care because of the high costs associated with poor insurance plans that require individuals to pay high premiums and deductibles, which may or may not contain good benefits such as free preventative care. In addition, due to the past economic recession in 2008, many employers could not afford to pay for health benefits and canceled numerous plans for many employees. This effectively increased the rate of uninsured Americans as well as the increasing health care costs.
By 1915 workers compensation laws were passed in 30 States. The AALL was inspired by their success and proposed a government health insurance at the State level. They drafted legislation to be presented at various State legislatures. Their model included protection for low income workers with hospital and medical benefits for both workers and their dependants. Public debate began. The AALL needed political support. For two years they were doing well. In 1917 the War Risk Insurance Act was passed. This was health insurance for servicemen and their families. From 1918 to 1920 several State study commissions reported unfavorably on the issue. A California voter referendum on government health insurance was defeated. In the New York state assembly, the bill was defeated. Soon after, the campaign for government health insurance collapsed. The public philosophy shapes the public policy. Public attitudes in those days leaned toward government as the last resort. Government responsibility was to ensure maximum freedom of private enterprise. It was felt society progressed by the rule “survival of the fittest”. Government interference would upset the natural evolution of society. Those wanting reform couldn’t agree themselves as to the best way to achieve change...
We no longer had to wait for a doctor to come our house or have family member care for us, we now had hospitals to go when we were ill, we had doctors with degrees and nurses to attend to our needs but how would we pay for such things? In the 1930’s there was a great rise in healthcare costs. At this time most all doctors were paid by a “fee-for-service” program. New insurance plans like Blue Cross and Blue Shield of America offered members to pay for the costs of being hospitalized and for the treatment the physician had given to them. The AHA decided to take a role in group hospitalization plans and during the World War II a new medical plan was started by a man named Henry J Kaiser, he offered his employees’ a pre-paid medical insurance plan. This is what paved the road to what know how as a Healthcare Maintenance Organization or an HMO.
Larry Dossey uses three eras to describe how medicine has progressed since the second half of the 19th century (A Healing Presence). Era I, the physical body era, began in the 1860s when the link between science and medicine became evident. Health and illness were physical in nature. Patients were treated with medical procedures, surgeries, and medications. “A person’s consciousness is considered a byproduct of the chemical, anatomic, and physiologic aspects of the brain and is not considered a major factor in the origins of health or disease” (Dossey & Keegan, 2013)
...e gap in attitudes between pre-medicalized and modern time periods. The trends of technological advancement and human understanding project a completely medicalized future in which medical authorities cement their place above an intently obedient society.
A long time ago, there was no need for health insurance in America, as doctors had many clients because their services were not so expensive and in some cases in rural areas, people could pay by giving other items. Doctors were not as knowledgeable as they are nowadays in caring for the sick, therefore this didn't have much effect then on the patients, as they were treated for the basic illnesses. As progress was made in medicine gradually with new medical technologies which could only be used in the hospitals, doctors started charging more, which was unaffordable for most people, with time, all this started to change as the industrialization of the American economy caused families and people to start relying on services from doctors and the hospitals for treatment. In 1929, a system was created in Dallas, Texas (1) which charged everyone the same. This insurance was to ease the healthcare problem and create a happy scenario for both the doctors and patient, which employers added health to employment packages to boost labor due to shortage after the Second World War.
It is evident through ancient writings that forms of healing were present as far back as is recorded. Medicine, healers and forms of payment seem to have played an important role in the past, like they do now. However, over the centuries changes have taken place. From the time of Galen in ancient Rome to the 14th and 15th centuries in England the relationships between doctors and patients have evolved, along with the way medicine is defined and practiced. Specifically I would like to focus on forms of payment and their effect on the doctor-patient relationship and how payment and the practice of medicine have changed over time. These changes led to a healer-patient relationship that was not as personal as it was in the time of Galen. Instead of the healer playing the role of a friend helping his neighbor, we find that being a doctor became a form of trade and the doctor started selling his services for money.
Freemantle, N. and Hill, S. (2002) ‘Medicalisation, limits to medicine, or never enough money to go around?’ in British Medical Journal, 324: 864-865.