Twitter-sized History of US Health Insurance
1920’s: cost of health care was ~4% of urban income but demand for hospital technologies rose. 1930’s: Blue Cross began providing hospitalization insurance for $6.00. Hospitals had steady income; consumers had relief but still paid other health care out-of-pocket. 1940’s: Blue Cross’ success prompted for-profit insurance companies to enter the health market, leading eventually to end-to-end health care “management”. 1950’s: demand for health insurance increased along with health care technologies and costs. Government policies encouraged providing health insurance as compensation instead of wages. Physicians lobbied to charge market rates based on ability to pay or location. Pharmaceuticals lobbied to charge market prices based on demand. 1960’s: government programs helped poor without modifying growing for-profit health management system. Today: the working insured enjoy new health technologies but pay ~15% of income and rising when including lost wages due to company’s premiums.
