Hcs/440 Economic Terms and Health Care History

Economic Terms and Health Care History

Christi Mitchell

HCS/440

December 17, 2012

Bruce Peterson

This paper will be about the discussion of the history of health care economics and the health care funding evolution and timeline. By learning definitions of economic terms will help you to understand the future and history changes. Some of the terms would be supply and demand, elasticity, and inelasticity. The cost of health care changes over the years and by looking at the history will allow the future to avoid making the same mistakes.

In the United States, economics in health care has experienced many transformations. The economic changes in health care may have been caused by the evolutionary modifications in the United States. Advancement of technology and how medical treatment is offered would be considered the key contributing causes for the changes in health care economics. “The early years of formalized health care in America (1880-1930) saw the establishment of the medical profession, both through the expanded duties and formal education of the physician and the growth of the hospital system” (Wasley, 1993, pg. 11). In the 1930s, the United States had the same amount of medical, nursing, and dental schools. During this time the United States encountered the Great Depression, this caused the expansion of health care facilities and personnel to slow down (Wasley, 1993). The Great Depression made it hard for American citizens to pay for medical care. This caused doctors to try to make allowances for patients who were having a hard time financially. The hospitals could not do this because of the fixed costs and because of this the number of hospital receipts plummeted from more than $200 per patient to less than $60 (Wasley, 1993). This caused the hospitals to turn to insurance plans to guarantee a steady cash flow.

In 1929, the first plan was introduced at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas, Texas (Wasley, 1993). A group of 1,500 schoolteachers...