Two Major Changes That Have Affected the Health Care System Since World War II, Research Paper Example

There are two major changes that have turned the health care system into what it is today. First, World War II some of the government provided employers, who were prevented from raising salaries which can lure employees, tax incentives to provide health insurance as a benefit to encourage employees. After the war ended, this practice became standard and additionally most Americans began to see health insurance as something that definitely came with their responsibilities, not as a government offered care service that other industrial nations did (Andersen, et al., 2007).

Ultimately, as the tax breaks disappeared and also the cost of health insurance rose, more and more Americans have health care because employers can no longer afford it. It is this particular development that has led to some of the existing issue in the American system of health insurance and also some of the number of people who are not able to afford regular care. A 2nd change, and one mainly accountable for the increase, is which medical care once meant the use of hospital materials to expand and improve life. This is almost certainly why Medicare, for years, merely covered medical equipment not prescriptions.

Today, however, it is medications, definitely not medical equipment, that has become the most costly aspect of health care. “The health care system, however, remains designed around a medical care system where medical equipment is provided a lot more coverage than prescriptions” (Jonas, et al., 2007). Information about this is accessible in multiple; peer evaluated medical journals and government economic reports created by the Government Accounting Office and also Social Security Administration.

References

Jonas, S.; Golsteen, R., (2007), Introduction to the US health care system. Retreived from Google ebooks.

Andersen, R.; Rice, T.; Kominski, G., (2007), Changing the U.S. health care system. Retrieved from Google ebooks.