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Surgery is now common in U.S., especially for removing tumors, infected tonsils, appendectomies, and gynecological operations.
Doctors are no longer expected to provide free services to all hospital patients.
America lags behind European countries in finding value in insuring against the costs of sickness. -
Progressive reformers argue for health insurance, seems to be gaining support.
Opposition from physicians and other interest groups, and the entry of the US into the war in 1917 undermine reform effort.
American hospitals are now modern scientific institutions, valuing antiseptics and cleanliness, and using medications for the relief of pain. -
Reformers now emphasize the cost of medical care instead of wages lost to sickness - the relatively higher cost of medical care is a new and dramatic development, especially for the middle class.
Growing cultural influence of the medical profession - physicians' incomes are higher and prestige is established.
Rural health facilities are clearly inadequate. -
Push for health insurance within the Roosevelt Administration, but politics begins to be influenced by internal government conflicts over priorities.
Against the advice of insurance professionals, Blue Cross begins offering private coverage for hospital care in dozens of states. -
President Truman offers national health program plan, proposing a single system that would include all of American society.
Penicillin comes into use. -
Many more medications are available now to treat a range of diseases, including infections, glaucoma, and arthritis, and new vaccines become available that prevent dreaded childhood diseases, including polio. The first successful organ transplant is performed.
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In the 1950s, the price of hospital care doubled. Now in the early 1960s, those outside the workplace, especially the elderly, have difficulty affording insurance.
Over 700 insurance companies selling health insurance. -
Healthcare costs are escalating rapidly, partially due to unexpectedly high Medicare expenditures, rapid inflation in the economy, expansion of hospital expenses and profits, and changes in medical care including greater use of technology, medications, and conservative approaches to treatment.
The number of women entering the medical profession rises dramatically. In 1970, 9% of medical students are women; by the end of the decade, the proportion exceeds 25%.
World Health Organization declares s -
Under President Reagan, Medicare shifts to payment by diagnosis (DRG) instead of by treatment. Private plans quickly follow suit.
Growing complaints by insurance companies that the traditional fee-for-service method of payment to doctors is being exploited. "Capitation" payments to doctors become more common. -
Health care costs rise at double the rate of inflation.
By the end of the decade there are 44 million Americans, 16 % of the nation, with no health insurance at all.
Human Genome Project to identify all of the more than 100,000 genes in human DNA gets underway.
By June 1990, 139,765 people in the United States have HIV/AIDS, with a 60 percent mortality rate. -
Human Genome Project to identify all of the more than 100,000 genes in human DNA is expected to be completed a full two years ahead of schedule, in 2003.
Direct-to-consumer advertising for pharmaceuticals and medical devices is on the rise.
