Brasfeild Ch.6-9

The last chapters of Brasfield, which includes chapter six through chapter nine, wrapped up what we have discussed throughout this semester pretty well. Chapter six's main topic of discussion was log-term care. The themes that Brasfield covered in chapter six included how care has changed, the policies that implement such care, the different diseases that elderly people are at risk of getting, insurance coverage for the elderly, and mental health. All of the previous topics interested me but one story stuck out. Brasfield had a student in a health policy class that was from Nigeria and at the end of a discussion during class he stood up and gave his view on nursing homes. The student made the argument that our parents raised us and taught us most of everything that we know about life, so why should we, as their children, desert them and not care for them when they are older and in need of our love and care. In Nigeria the children keep their parents and cared for them in the comfort of the home. This story stuck out to me because in todays society nursing homes are something that Generation Y assumes is a necessity for their parents in the future and I personally think part of the reason for that view is because of the health care institutions that the United States has today. Throughout chapter seven the health care reform was discussed. I didn't find chapter seven very interesting because it was a lot of repeated information about the policies and legislation that the health reform has required. Chapter eight was about how other countries implement health care and what kind of systems they have. One quote from chapter eight I found really intriguing was as follows, "The practice of medicine is the same but the financial and administrative systems differ". the different countries that were mentioned throughout chapter eight included the United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany. The United Kingdom has a system called NHS and every citizen has single health care. Canada has a system which says that the thirteen different provinces and territories operates under their own system which are formed under national guidelines. Also what I found interesting was that Germany's insurance system which includes the health system is the oldest in the world. Lastly in chapter nine Brasfield discusses what health care will look like in the year 2021. Basically, Brasfield predicts that the recovery from the recession will still be in the process of fixing, the federal budget will be high, and health care expenditures will have risen. All in all I enjoyed this book because it was partly politically focused and it discussed major issues in health care in the past, present, and future.

Reflection of Paper

    While writing my paper, I was suppose to post regularly about the progress I was making and the reactions I had to my research. However I worked on my paper over a long period of time, in short intervals. Therefore it would have been impractical for me to post short, vague sentence. As a result, I am going to combine those reaction posts into my reflection post.
    When I started my paper, my thesis statement was rather lengthy and didn't have a clear path. The first thesis I had mentioned society, nurses, surgeons, the military, and homes. I soon narrowed my research to nurses in the Civil War and how they changed the view of society and the treatment in the medical arena. One of the first books that we read in class has a vast amount of information about the role that the nurses played during the Civil War and how the soldiers made the role of those nurses a necessity. One of the most prominent themes that showed up throughout my paper was the organization of the USSC. Before I took this course I had not heard of the USSC or the role it played throughout medical history. Some of the regulations and orders that we have today are from the foundation that was instituted by the USSC. Also one of the most interesting themes that is underlying in my paper is the theme of perspective. Throughout time one of the reasons that certain things wee discovered at certain times is because perspectives and norms change. For example, during the Civil War the issue of sanitation was at the forefront. Today sanitation seems like a norm and it is what patients expect, but during he Civil War sanitation was advancing and helped form a foundation that caused sanitation to be perfected and more lives were and are being saved because of those advances. The  themes that are mentioned above are not the only topics that my paper contains, but they are the topics that captured my attention and helped me understand the history of medicine to a greater extent.

Brasfield Ch.3-5

At the beginning of chapter three, Brasfield clearly identifies the details of when Medicare was implemented and who put it in place. Medicare is the national health care for older Americans and, according to Brasfield, there are four sections that encompass what Medicare covers. Those four sections include hospitalization and skilled nursing facility payments, physician and out patient services, Medicare advantage related to private plans, and outpatient prescription drug coverage. The implementation of Medicare lasted from 1966 through 1969. Then the issues of costs and payments were discussed. An issue that I noticed was that the roles that social security would cover and the roles that Medicare would cover. Both of the roles overlapped in some areas and caused controversy. Then the next major theme in the chapter was core policy issues, which include social insurance versus private insurance, long term fiscal policy, cost control strategies, and more. Lastly the real issue, I feel like is discussed at the end, which is "who should pay for Medicare?". And honestly there is no clear answer. Throughout chapter four the theme of Medicaid is expounded upon. Brasfield says that Medicaid was almost creeping into the system by tagging along with the welfare system that was already in place. For the past couple of decades Medicaid has been growing and becoming a competing element with Medicare because of its growing size and costs. During the Reagan administration, they tried to reduce the growth of Medicaid and discourage the welfare system that was already so large. Medicaid covers so many people and is so big that it is possible that it is too large to deconstruct. The rest of chapter four discusses the future of Medicaid and the costs it will require and size to which it will grow. Chapter five talks broadly about the overall. The United States Health Care is so expensive because of the norms and lifestyle that everyone is used to and expects. I thought that chapter three through five were very descriptive and useful while expressing the actual size and cost of what health care encompasses today in the United States.

Health Policy- Brasfield Ch. 1 and 2

To begin with, Brasfield looks at health care from an economic standpoint, which is what past authors have done as well but the book "Health Policy The Decade Ahead" examines health care and economics more in depth. For example in chapter one Brasfield says that the basic measures of health care spending includes percentage of gross domestic product spent on health care, the annual rate of increase in health care spending, total of health care spending raised by taxation, the share of health care dollars spent for hospital services, and private insurance premiums. The list above, according to Brasfield, is the basic economics in health policy. Also I noticed throughout the first two chapters that there are a lot of graphs to show how economics and cost ebbs and flows when concerning health policy. Also throughout chapter one the author goes through the decades. For example he talks about the civil war era and then on through the 1900's. Throughout chapter two, Brasfield discusses and looks at the institutions and processes of government, and mostly focusing on Congress. At the beginning of chapter two the author goes through the fundamentals of introducing a bill and plays out hat that looks like in government. Then chapter two goes into details about what pressures push decision making in certain ways such as interest groups, lobbyist, or the bureaucratic system. So far I have enjoyed this book and hope to continue to!

Altman Ch11-Epilogue

To start off Part four of Altman's book, Obama's health care plan is discussed. Obama's main focus for election was his emphasis on a new healthcare system. The healthcare that he instituted and broadened, is the idea of universal healthcare. Supposedly he received advice from certain economists which include, two other men and Stuart Altman, the author of the book. Throughout chapter eleven, the aspects of this "universal healthcare" are mentioned. One such aspect includes employer-sponsored insurance system. Also the last part of chapter eleven I found rather interesting because it lists the summary of Obama's framework. The cost of this universal healthcare is discussed a bit, but in the summary it talks about expanding Medicaid for low-income individuals, which would automatically raise costs. The Book goes onto talk about past politicians who wanted to see universal healthcare become a reality. One major person that was mentioned was Ted Kennedy, which in a way creates emotion from the reader because it talks about Ted Kennedy's brain cancer, and that he fought for universal healthcare toward the very end. Throughout chapter twelve, Altman talks about historical background and how hospitals work with this specific healthcare. Then in chapter thirteen, fourteen. fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen discusses the processes and details of Obama's universal healthcare. Then once again chapter nineteen talks about cost control, and mentions several health organizations and the GDP and OMB. The epilogue at the end of the book summarizes how history prominently influenced the path the U.S. is on today concerning healthcare systems.

Slow Expansion of Coverage, Altman Part 2-3

With the start of part two in the book "Power, Politics, and Universal Health Care", by Altman begins with chapter four. Chapter four focuses on free hospital care for the poor. While talking about logistics, Altman talks about many great political figure heads and leaders that had sort of a tug of war when concerning adequate hospital facilities and free hospital health care. The most prominent thing that was discussed in chapter four was the Hill-Burton Program, which gave power to the states to help make their hospitals well equipped. Chapter five is when he book starts getting into the details of Medicare and the controversies that it brought along, politically and socially. 1958 was the year when health care hearings for the elderly started to be heard in Congress. Throughout chapter six and seven, Altman focuses on Medicare and is rather repetitive because not a lot of progress was made, but he includes a lot of stories and advances that were made in the political sphere. Chapter eight goes into detail about Medicare still, but mainly on the prescription drug benefit. George W. Bush pushed for this concept for the first two years of his administration, which was viewed as strange because he was a conservative Republican. Part three mainly focusses on costs, which in my mind when anybody ever says health care my first thought is money. I feel like most other people I associate with at least associate cost and money with health care before they consider anything else. Part two and three of this book talk about politics mainly concerning issues and the advances they made with certain issues, which I find interesting but its rather tedious to remember and write about specifically.

Unsuccessful Health Care Proposals: Altman Part 1

   I have to say that this book was not what I expected when I began to read it. It has much, much more political background and political ideas throughout part one.
   To start off chapter one, Altman and Shactman talk about the secret church meeting. This secret meeting included Altman, who was the deputy assistant excretory for planning and evaluation--health, and some of his colleagues. The meeting also included Stan Jones, Bill Fullerton, and a few others. The reason why I listed the people that attended the meeting is because they all represented prominent politicians and this "secret meeting" shows the backstage part of politics.
   The whole purpose of part one, and I'm guessing the rest of the book is the health care system, and in particular what kind of health care bills have been constructed. Throughout part one, the book discusses Nixon's plan, Kennedy's plan, and Clinton's plan. Part one also spends a lot of time talking about different IGO's and organization that go into the healthcare system, and also committees that are governmental that are needed to get healthcare systems passed or even glanced at.
   Since I am a political science major I would have to say that this book is my favorite by far, and there are many things that I could go into that I read in part one but i touched on a few that were interesting to me.

Hoffman Ch.6-Epilogue

Starting with chapter six, Hoffman discusses Entitlements such as medicare and medicaid. the chapter itself talks about a lot of logistics and details, but the main theme I could draw from this chapter and the topics discussed was that it needs to be clearly stated and realized by Americans is that entailments are not rights. I could take this blog post and list all the specifics that are mentioned throughout some of the chapters, but for chapters six through seven and some of the others, I feel like health care and entitlements are the main focuses. The government involvement for all of these medical organizations is what makes them so controversial and all the money that is spent and lost with these organizations. But the other controversies come into play because these programs help people and the moral/American side of people see that as a reason to support them, but its more than that. Chapter eight discusses emergency rooms and epidemics. The cost is a major theme throughout this chapter and also epidemics such as AIDs epidemic in 1981 that terrified the American people. In chapter nine discusses how healthcare is unsteady and there have been many reforms and changes that political leaders have tried to make and healthcare is still controversial and unsteady.

Hoffman Ch.1-5

When I started reading Hoffman I noticed that the writing style is more narrative and it gives more examples which I am able to relate to and understand more easily, compared to the past readings. The first chapter in Hoffman is titled, "A Crisis Of Access". The first chapter, I thought was very informative and explanatory about the Great Depression and the health care and medical need during that time was also explained. The Great Depression was what highlighted the start of charity clinics and the idea of the government really getting involved with families personal medical needs. Throughout chapter two the New Deal is defined and explained in the terms of healthcare. President Roosevelt created the new deal, and in my personal opinion the New Deal encouraged the interaction and aid of the government to the citizens, especially in healthcare. Some government intervention is beneficial but not all and it showed be limited, and the New Deal widened the doorway connecting the government to the public and their personal lives. In chapter three WWII was highlighted and the writing made it clear that during WWII and after the public were more aware and passionate about how they all deserved adequate healthcare and the government shouldn't hesitate to give it to them. Chapter four goes more in detail about post WWII and the feelings that arose about hospitals. Not all people were for hospitals, there was a percentage that didn't feel comfortable with the expansion of healthcare and hospitals. Finally, chapter five discusses the private healthcare insurance sector. This idea sprang out in the 1930's on, so once again WWII had a role in the development of healthcare insurance.

Howell Ch. 6-8

    Howell begins chapter six with blood and blood counts. Two specific techniques are thoroughly discussed in chapter six, which includes viewing the blood through a microscope and measuring it in other ways. Also in chapter six the iodine reaction was used for differentiating of change in white blood cells. I noticed that throughout this chapter the importance of white blood cells is at large. By the characteristics of white blood cells physicians could tell the habits and healthiness or any abnormalities of blood.
     Chapter seven continues into the same field as chapter six somewhat. The topics of blood and diseases were discussed, such as: pneumonia, typhoid fever, and appendicitis. The white blood cell count once again is discussed with great importance because it shows the signs of diseases, such as the one I mentioned previously.
    Chapter eight talks about, broadly, medicine and machines. The way that technology effected the health care system and society as well is discussed at length in chapter eight. Historical analysis is used in chapter eight as well because of the connection between technology and health care, which shows results throughout time.
    Overall I enjoy reading "Technology in The Hospital" by Joel D. Howell. I was broad in some terms but specific in others and i found all the topics discussed interesting enough to hold my attention.

Howell Ch. 3-5

   Chapter three through chapter five we very interesting to me. All three of these chapters talk abut the advances of technology which is what the book is centered about. The main advances in medicine and hospitals are throughout these chapters I believe, which include urinalysis and the new idea of the x-ray.
    The book moved from administrative offices, to clinical wards, and then through more until chapter three got to diagnostic laboratories. One of the main focuses on chapter three was urinalysis. This was not a new idea at all, it just became more advanced. People were able to tell if someone was sick or ill or diseased by the color, froth, smell, and taste of urine. There was no special equipment needed or training involved. However things became more advanced. In chapter three Howell examines Pennsylvania and New York hospitals by using graphs and tables. The advances made by the urinalysis and the steps that were taken in diagnostic laboratories throughout time is incredible.
     Throughout chapter four the x-ray was discussed. A German man named Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen vaguely invited the idea of the x-ray. Although the idea was advanced and made into a machine and developed, this was the man who first gave the first idea of an x-ray.
      Chapter five furthers the idea of the x-ray by developing it. Also chapter five focuses on how people read x-rays. At first an x-ray was able to be taken and looked at but nothing could b derived from these pictures. If you think about it, before the x-ray was invited no one had actually seen a set of era bones in a real person, who was still living at least. So the knowledge of healthy bones and how to read and assess x-rays correctly was a daunting task.
    Throughout these three chapters I feel like a lot of important medical things were explained and so was the history behind them all.

Howell Ch 1&2

      The first thing I noticed when beginning this book was the difference between the way Howell explains things and the way Humphreys explains things. Th
      Throughout the first chapter of Technology Transforming Medicine there were a lot of graphs. The way the organization of hospitals in the 1900's through 1925 was explained in a very scientific way, by expanding on the different machines and progress that had developed with machines throughout twenty five years. The different tools that were used to make things more efficient and quick were also mentioned in chapter one.
     In chapter two, Howell talks about the organization, and different levels of work in the hospital. Also chapter two talks about and compares different areas and the hospitals in those different areas. The way hospitals were organized was systematic in separating administers. The organization used in the 1900-1925 was the beginning process of helping hospitals run more efficiently and quickly.
     Although the writing style of Technology Transforming Medicine is completely different than Marrow's Tragedy, it still explains medicine in a chronological and systematic way.

Humphrey's Ch.7-Afterward

      Throughout the final chapters of the book there were many points of interests that struck me hard. But the one point that stuck out to me the most was the section titled, coming home. In this section the author speaks about how the wounded and sick returned home after the war. The men returned to where they were used to being while sick or wounded. However not all men were able to feel the comforts of home one last time. There were over 200,000 women who were widowed and left to keep the house, land and family running on their own.
   Also there was another section in the book that spoke of the prisoners of war. In todays modern time, when people think of prisoners of war they think in a 3rd world country or in the middle east. I don't think many people think about how during the civil war there were prisoners of war as well. When brother turned against brother, there was torturing and starvation that was occurring on American soil between the North and the South. Some of the pictures that are in the book show how gruesome and horrid life was for a prisoner of war during the civil war.
    I have found this book very interesting because it educated me on subjects that I didn't even know occurred during the civil war. And also the book focused on issues that have been skimmed over by many historians that were important to the development of the medical world today.

Humphrey's Ch.4-6

Throughout chapters 4-6, Humphrey focussing on the USSC, Which stands for the United States Sanitary Commission. I find this organization very interesting because of all the different roles it played During the American Civil War. Women started to really take a leading role when the USSC was established, although they were involved before, this set the involvement of women off even more so. Men were not used to being sick and not being at home without the comfort of their wives or mothers, however when the USSC was made that drastic reality was made a little more tolerable. For the formation and continuation of the USSC, women raised money, made uniforms, worked as nurses, ran kitchens, administered hospital ships, as well as soldiers homes, and lodges. The acts of women previously listed are not the only activities that women partook in. It is interesting to me that the "small' things in life during peace time were a little glazed over. I am very far away from being considered as a feminists, however the everyday acts that women complete in the home life and for the family end up determining how successful and able people will be while not at home. So During the civil war things such as bathing, eating nutritiously, and cleanliness/sanitation were more difficult to obtain without women playing a large, prominent role. So therefore the USSC played a very important role and helped with the war effort during the civil war.

Humphreys--Intro-Ch.3

        When we are to think about all the medical attention we receive today, and what is available to us most of us don't realize what kind of advances have been made and how extraordinary it is that when we need the flu shot, or have a broken bone, or need stitches all of those are able to be taken care of. Throughout the Civil War, many deaths occurred because of something as simple as sanitation issues. However, sanitation is in a way simple to us now because we have a way to make sure everything is clean and sheets can be changed and instruments can be cleaned, but during the Civil War sanitation was in no way simple. I find it really interesting that what we are concerned with today concerning medicine is vastly different compared to what the doctors and nurses during the Civil War were worried about. But its not because those doctors and nurses were unequipped, although some were, but it was because the knowledge of medicine that is available to us now, they didn't have the slightest inkling of.
      During the Civil War the hospital ended with a drastically different role than it began with. At the beginning of the war the hospital was not a place for the wealthy or the mildly sick, but as the war progressed the hospital was used for soldiers and the wounded and its goal was to try and heal them to send them back off to war as soon as possible. Also most of the people who were getting wounded were males. Males were not used to being sick or wounded and not being at home to have their wife/mother/sister care for them. During the war men would have to remember to shower and eat healthy and all the necessary things a sick/wounded person must do to get better.
   There were many other topics that Humphreys touched on throughout the intro to chapter three but these were just a couple that I found the most interesting!

Introduction Blog--Before the 1920's

Before the 1920's the health care/medical situation was in a sense hopeless. The medical situation was mostly hopeless, not because the people weren't as intelligent as the people of this day and age, but the resources that are available to us are much more helpful compared to the resources that were available to those before the 1920's. Sadly, the results of this minimal resources availability, was more deaths and hope was lost for most.