Doctors were not well trained and had to travel on foot or by horse to reach those in need. This would mean that the tools needed were limited and small. By the mid 1800’s the access to care started to change. Hospitals that were built by city governments to treat the poor started treating those that were not so poor. Allowing providers an increased power, they stopped traveling and started treating patients under one roof. (Fillmore, 2001). Around 1870’s, several companies, including mining, lumber and railroad, developed clinics with health plans that would pre-pay doctors a set amount to provider care of accidents and illnesses. This was the first to start providing care for more than accidents that occurred on the job. However, if the worker did not have the funds, they were unable to obtain the care needed unless other pooled money together for …show more content…
In 1997, Children’s Health Insurance Coverage (CHIP) was created to cover children and make sure that they had the ability to receive care in all 50 states. The Medicare program moved forward in 2003 with Part D, The Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act (MMA). Starting in 2010, the long hall forward to have a more universal healthcare system was passed as most would know as The Obamacare and to others know it in the form of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The goal of ACA was to make sure all in the U.S citizens had access to healthcare. The increase of Medicaid patients increased to and those that did not qualify for Medicaid had the choice to purchase a Co-Op’s plan. In 2015 the average increase of Medicaid enrollment by 13.8 percent. (Rudowitz, Snyder &Smith, 2015). There were 23 CO-OP plans that launched in 2013; however, the federal funding was limited and due to the lack of customers, twelve of these plans closed. (Corlete, Miskell, Lerche & Giovannelli, 2015) Although there was coverage it did not guarantee that Hospitals or Physicians would contract to take CO-OP’s or open their practices. This left many access to care and specialty care in the same place as it did prior to ACA