From Sickness Insurance to Health Insurance: The Search for Affordable Health Care in America (Advocacy‪)‬

To understand healthcare reform in the context of the U.S. system of deliverying health care, an understanding of the past is helpful. Until recently--and in some areas of the world, even today--health care includes facets of herbology, astronomy, divinity, animism, and many other influencing factors. In many industrialized nations, including the United States, healthcare delivery has moved from the home to the hospital and has grown in response to the healthcare needs of an expanding middle class. Modern evidence-based medicine, with increasing utilization of technology and techniques, has improved the quality of medical care--at a cost. Organized medicine developed during the nineteenth century. The American Medical Association was founded in 1847 at Philadelphia's Academy of the Natural Sciences. The American Orthopaedic Association--the oldest orthopaedic association in the world--was established in 1887.