Hoffman Chapters 1-5

Before the Great Depression hit the United States in the 1930s, many people had never experienced being in a public hospital in their entire lives. However, as unemployment rates across the country rose dramatically, more and more people were forced to go to public hospitals, free clinics, or even charities to get medical attention since they could not afford to pay a private physician anymore. This huge influx of new people to these hospitals caused many of them to quickly spend all their resources, with no way of being able to treat the massive amounts of people that came looking for treatment. Doctors were also resentful about the many new "unable to pay" patients that frequently began to come, to the point that some clinics and hospitals began to see patients based on their ability to pay. Government subsidies created some relief, but these did not last long as the President Roosevelt frequently began to focus more on unemployment rates rather than medical care. The issue of medical care for the majority of people lasted throughout the Great Depression, and was a constant problem that arose across the country. Many people at this time believed that medical care was a basic human right that everyone should have, and demanded that the government help the unemployed pay for their hospital bills. This was, of course, debated by the medical profession as not an option, since the doctors would not make as much money as they would if the patients were paying for their own treatments. This led to a national debate, one that helped create prepaid hospital insurance called Blue Cross, which only paid for hospital fees, and later, Blue Shield, which payed for the doctor's services. These services spread quickly across the nation, until most major employers used one or both of these plans for the benefit of their employees. This was just the beginning of national health insurance on a national scale.
When World War II broke out, there was an overwhelming rush by anyone that could, including doctors and nurses, to the army to help the cause. This rush devastated the civilian doctors who did not go, causing a massive shortage in doctors in areas that needed them from population shifts that occurred throughout the war. There was also the issue of men leaving their pregnant wives behind to pay for their medical bills on the meager pay that they earned. This was solved through the EMIC, which helped pay for millions of child-births across the country during the war. After the war, the Hill-Burton Act was the main bill passed for hospital reform. It sent millions of dollars to hospitals, and also sent millions of dollars to help build countless more. This bill was an important first step towards a national health care system.