A Timeline Of Healthcare In America
How The United States Became The Only Developed Nation Without Universal Health Coverage
The 1800s
1847: The American Medical Association (AMA)formalizes its Code Of Ethics. The first sentence in the code says that doctors must “obey the calls of the sick”. The code makes no mention of an individual’s right to care.
1880: By this time most states have established hospitals to provide care for people with chronic or contagious diseases, the indigent and the mentally ill. This allows private hospitals to largely exclude these populations. Although many private hospitals still receive public assistance in the form of grants and, in some cases, free land.
1883- Otto Von Bismarck establishes a National Healthcare System in Germany. Both workers and employers pay into the pool and workers receive sick pay and access to medical care. Von Bismarck says his motivation is to quell a popular uprising which could lead to more, or even total, socialism. Leaders of the spread-out, decentralized United States don’t have this worry.
1889: The Mayo Clinic is founded in Rochester Minnesota. The “group practice” approach works but is not widely accepted within the medical profession.
