What Year Did Health Insurance

[chloe]

What year did we begin to offer Health Insurance in America? Prior to Health Insurance how did people pay for Doctors? What era did Doctors make home visits? Thanks for your answers in advance.

[red states rule]

What year did we begin to offer Health Insurance in America? Prior to Health Insurance how did people pay for Doctors? What era did Doctors make home visits? Thanks for your answers in advance.

After WWII wages were frozen. So employers offered health insurance as a perk to attract and keep workers

I do not remember the Doctor ever coming to the house when I was a kid

[chloe]

After WWII wages were frozen. So employers offered health insurance as a perk to attract and keep workers

I do not remember the Doctor ever coming to the house when I was a kid

Thanks Sweet, so in the old fashioned black n white movies where they show a doctor come to the characters home and make a housecall, it's just fiction doctors never did home visits or it was just before your time? So before world war 2 people paid out of pocket expenses to doctors, did they lose the farm over it or was it cheaper before insurance?

[maineman]

I was born in 1950, in western Illinois... and I remember doctors making house calls when kids in my family were sick.

[chloe]

I was born in 1950, in western Illinois... and I remember doctors making house calls when kids in my family were sick.

Really? That seems like it would have been cool, why did that change? was it insurance, technology, or population demands ?

[maineman]

from wiki:

Accident insurance was first offered in the United States by the Franklin Health Assurance Company of Massachusetts. This firm, founded in 1850, offered insurance against injuries arising from railroad and steamboat accidents. Sixty organizations were offering accident insurance in the US by 1866, but the industry consolidated rapidly soon thereafter. While there were earlier experiments, the origins of sickness coverage in the US effectively date from 1890. The first employer-sponsored group disability policy was issued in 1911.[4]

Before the development of medical expense insurance, patients were expected to pay all other health care costs out of their own pockets, under what is known as the fee-for-service business model. During the middle to late 20th century, traditional disability insurance evolved into modern health insurance programs. Today, most comprehensive private health insurance programs cover the cost of routine, preventive, and emergency health care procedures, and also most prescription drugs, but this was not always the case.

Hospital and medical expense policies were introduced during the first half of the 20th century. During the 1920s, individual hospitals began offering services to individuals on a pre-paid basis, eventually leading to the development of Blue Cross organizations.[4] The predecessors of today's health maintenance organizations (HMOs) originated in 1929, through the 1930s and on during World War II.[

[maineman]

Really? That seems like it would have been cool, why did that change? was it insurance, technology, or population demands ?

I think the population increases with the baby boom made it more difficult...

but... it seems that it is making a bit of a comeback

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...3699_db037.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032301745.html

[chloe]

I think the population increases with the baby boom made it more difficult...

but... it seems that it is making a bit of a comeback

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...3699_db037.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...032301745.html

Thank you Doll, that is exactly what I was wondering ! I will bookmark these links to read later, I have to go to work now ciao!