Patient Empowerment And The Health Insurance Industry

Healthcare 10 years ago is so much different than today. According to Chideya, 14.1 percent of Americans were without insurance. Patient Segregation was still a big factor back then. Hospitals at the time were still treating patients of certain races, religion, and gender. Hospital stays were so much longer compared to today due to not having the technology advances we have today. (Leonard, 2014) When a patient was sick, they didn’t have the options we have today. These patients had to see a doctor whereas today patients are able to see a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner. Patient empowerment is another factor that has been improved. Back in the 1950’s or 60’s, doctors would still withhold information of a woman’s diagnosis from†¦show more content†¦Most of the medical equipment run on digital platform and information software. Due to this dependency, healthcare is becoming more and more expensive and hard for the common man to afford. F irstly, politics have played a major role on healthcare since the end of World War II. Many attempts were made on health care reform: The Truman Administration (1945 - 1953) where President Truman proposed for universal health insurance coverage, administered and paid for by the National Health Insurance Board but this bill didn’t get very far after Congress condemned it as â€Å"socialized medicine.† Between the years of 1953-1961, the Eisenhower Administration supported the â€Å"Military Medicare† program which provided payment for healthcare services for all military dependents. Shortly after, the Kennedy Administration pursued a more modest form of healthcare coverage which entitled that health insurance coverage would be limiter to those 65 years of age and older. There was a lot of back and forth going and President Kennedy didn’t live to see the proposal’s chances through so it was passed to President Johnson. With President Johnson in office between the years of 1963-1969, the Social Security Amendment of 1965 was passed and entitled healthcare coverage to those 65 years and older, to the poor, blind and disabled.