Notable Event Timeline of the History of U.S. Healthcare by Alex Gregory

1994

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

The Blues' board relented and allowed member plans to become for-profit insurers. This was the final blow to get rid of old-fashioned noble-minded health insurance.

1970s and 1980s

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

Through aggressive marketing, the for-profit plans slowly gained mart shares. This is the major point in U.S. medical history when profits started to dominate the market making it hard for the Blues to compete.

1990s

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

Blues offered insurance in all fifty states, causing them to spend an uncontrollable amount of money, due to profits leaving them with the sickest patients. This was the final straw which caused their motto to crumble

1940-1955

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

Americans with health insurance skyrocketed from 10 percent to over 60 percent. Meaning, that more people in need were able to be treated which is monumental at the time.

1940s

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

The first intensive care unit armed with ventilators opened during a polio epidemic in Copenhagen. This idea decreased the patient mortality rate significantly, concreting the unit in history.

1936

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

Massachusetts General Hospital started the first anesthesia department in the United States. This is a crucial department in monitoring the patient's vitals and level of consciousness.

1930s

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

Abbott Laboratories made and patented the first intravenous anesthetic, thiopental. This led to one of the first of many patented crucial medical equipment/medicine.

1920s

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

A lawyer named Justin Ford Kimball offered the local teachers' union a deal, that for $6 a year teachers who subscribed were given a twenty-on-day stay in the hospital, but after a week insurance took effect where it covered the full costs of hospitalization. This model within a decade spread across the country giving it the name Blue Cross Plans, which is known today.

1903

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

A health system was founded in a fourteen-room mansion by the Baptist church, this later merged with another corporation in 2013 to create a giant healthcare conglomerate. This is one of the major healthcare company giving out millions of insurance money and other things.

1890s

thegreg1720_ — 2024-01-12 18:44:51 UTC

Lumber companies in Tacoma, Washington, created one of the earliest types of employer-based insurance found in the U.S. today, by paying doctors 50 cents a month to care for employees.