ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the historical development of healthcare policies in the United States. It discusses the role of different levels of government in the field of public health. The government provides public insurance programs for those not covered by private insurance. Mostly private hospitals and doctors deliver healthcare. Americans pay more for their healthcare but receive less value compared with other industrialized countries. Neither healthcare nor the biosciences received a great deal of popular support in the United States in the early 1800s. By the 1830s, vaccination had become an established practice for the prevention of epidemic and spread of diseases. Third-party payers insulated healthcare consumers from the realities of healthcare costs, leading to overconsumption, a problem called “moral hazard” by economists. A number of significant developments took place in the healthcare field during the 1930s that brought about significant changes in the field of healthcare.
