ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the historical emergence of both medicine and public health in the United States. It discusses three fundamental issues: health status, the cost of health care, and the politics of health care. Domestic health care had been successfully tapped for massive profits by the patent medicine industry. The American Pharmaceutical Association (APA) and the National Association of Retail Druggists (NARD) were allied with the American Medical Association (AMA) in their financial links to prescription medicines and their hatred of domestic health care and the associated patent medicine industry. During most of the nineteenth century hospitals were generally places where the wretched and the destitute went to die. Hospitals were largely financed through private donations, with some assistance from local government. Some problems with contemporary public health practice include widespread obsolete public health laws that hamper the abilities of public health officials.
