Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Improvements in Health and the Organization and Development of Health Care and Health Insurance Markets

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Handbook of Cliometrics

  • 256 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter describes the gains in health in the twentieth century and the development of the markets of health care and health insurance. It first provides an overview of the literature documenting the gains in public health that led to mortality transition in the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Clean water, sanitation and electrification helped reduce mortality, as did food and milk inspection, the elimination of parasites such as malaria and hookworm, and food fortification. As the century progressed, advances in science and technology, combined with reforms in physician education and licensing led to improvements in medical care and health. These changes increased the cost of medical care and led to the development of health insurance markets.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Almond D, Chay KY, Greenstone M (2006) Civil rights, the war on poverty, and Black-White convergence in infant mortality in the rural South and Mississippi. Social Science Research Network, Rochester

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Alsan M, Goldin C (forthcoming) Watersheds in child mortality: the role of effective water and sewerage infrastructure, 1880 to 1920. J Polit Econ

    Google Scholar 

  • Alsan M, Wanamaker M (2018) Tuskegee and the health of Black men. Q J Econ 133:407–455. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjx029

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alsan M, Garrick O, Graziani GC (2018) Does diversity matter for health? Experimental evidence from Oakland. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • American Medical Association, Council on Medical Education (1922) Medical education in the United States. J Am Med Assoc 79

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson DM, Brown R, Charles KK, Rees DI (2016) The effect of occupational licensing on consumer welfare: early midwifery laws and maternal mortality. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson DM, Charles KK, Las Heras Olivares C, Rees DI (forthcoming) Was the first public health campaign successful? The Tuberculosis Movement and its effect on mortality. Am Econ J Appl Econ. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.20170411

  • Bailey MJ, Goodman-Bacon A (2015) The war on poverty’s experiment in public medicine: Community Health Centers and the mortality of older Americans. Am Econ Rev 105: 1067–1104. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20120070

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barreca AI, Fishback PV, Kantor S (2012) Agricultural policy, migration, and malaria in the United States in the 1930s. Explor Econ Hist 49:381–398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2012.05.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bleakley H (2007) Disease and development: evidence from hookworm eradication in the American South. Q J Econ 122:73–117. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.121.1.73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bleakley H (2010) Malaria eradication in the Americas: a retrospective analysis of childhood exposure. Am Econ J Appl Econ 2:1. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.2.2.1

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brinkley GL (1997) The decline in southern agricultural output, 1860–1880. J Econ Hist 57: 116–138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchmueller T, Ham JC, Shore-Sheppard LD (2016) Economics of means-tested transfer programs in the United States, vol 1. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Cain LP, Rotella EJ (2001) Death and spending: urban mortality and municipal expenditure on sanitation. Ann Demogr Hist 1:139

    Google Scholar 

  • Card D, Dobkin C, Maestas N (2008) The impact of nearly universal insurance coverage on health care utilization: evidence from Medicare. Am Econ Rev 98:2242–2258. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.98.5.2242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (2018) NHE-Fact-Sheet. In: NHE Fact Sheet. https://www.cms.gov/research-statistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-and-reports/nationalhealthexpenddata/nhe-fact-sheet.html. Accessed 20 Aug 2018

  • Chasse JD (1994) The American Association for Labor Legislation and the institutionalist tradition in national health insurance. J Econ Issues 28:1063–1090

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clay K, Troesken W, Haines M (2014) Lead and mortality. Rev Econ Stat 96:458–470. https://doi.org/10.1162/REST_a_00396

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clay K, Egedesø P, Hansen CW, Jensen PS (2018) Controlling tuberculosis? Evidence from the mother of all community-wide health experiments. SSRN Electron J. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3144355

  • Clay K, Schnick E, Troesken W (2018). The rise and fall of pellagra in the American South. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper 23730

    Google Scholar 

  • Condron G, Crimmins-Gardner E (1978) Public health measures and mortality in U.S. cities in the late nineteenth century. Hum Ecol 6:27–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Craig L (2006) Consumer expenditures. In: Carter SB, Gartner SS, Haines MR, Olmstead AL, Sutch R, Wright G (eds) Historical statistics of the United States: millennial edition, vol 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Cutler D, Miller G (2005) The role of public health improvements in health advances: the twentieth-century United States. Demography 42:1–22. https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2005.0002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler D, Deaton A, Lleras-Muney A (2006) The determinants of mortality. J Econ Perspect 20:97–120

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duffy J (1992) The sanitarians. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Emery JCH (1996) Risky business? Nonactuarial pricing practices and the financial viability of fraternal sickness insurers. Explor Econ Hist 33:195–226

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emery G, Emery JCH (1999) A young man’s benefit: the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and sickness insurance in the United States and Canada, 1860–1929. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montreal & Kingston

    Google Scholar 

  • Falk ISC, Rorem R, Ring MD (1933) The cost of medical care. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrie JP, Troesken W (2008) Water and Chicago’s mortality transition, 1850–1925. Explor Econ Hist 45:1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eeh.2007.06.001

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feyrer J, Politi D, Weil DN (2017) The cognitive effects of micronutrient deficiency: evidence from salt iodization in the United States. J Eur Econ Assoc 15:355–387. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeea/jvw002

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein A, McKnight R (2008) What did Medicare do? The initial impact of Medicare on mortality and out of pocket medical spending. J Public Econ 92:1644–1668. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2007.10.005

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flexner A, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Pritchett HS (1910) Medical education in the United States and Canada; a report to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. New York City

    Google Scholar 

  • Floud R, Fogel RW, Harris B, Hong SC (2011) The changing body: health, nutrition, and human development in the western world since 1700. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fogel RW (1994) Economic growth, population theory, and physiology: the bearing of long-term processes on the making of economic policy. Am Econ Rev 84:369–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Haines MR (2001) The urban mortality transition in the United States, 1800–1940. National Bureau of Economic Research historical paper 134. National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Higgs R (1971) The transformation of the American economy, 1865–1914: an essay in interpretation. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hollingsworth A (2013) The impact of sanitaria on pulmonary tuberculosis mortality: evidence from North Carolina, 1932–1940. Unpublished working paper

    Google Scholar 

  • Hong, Sok Chul (2007) The Health and Economic Burdens of Malaria: The American Case. Ph.D. diss., The University of Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Humphreys M (2001) Malaria: poverty, race, and public health in the United States. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Jayachandran S, Lleras-Muney A, Smith KV (2010) Modern medicine and the twentieth century decline in mortality: evidence on the impact of sulfa drugs. Am Econ J Appl Econ 2:118–146. https://doi.org/10.1257/app.2.2.118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitchens C (2013a) The effects of the Works Progress Administration’s anti-malaria programs in Georgia 1932–1947. Explor Econ Hist 50:567–581

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitchens C (2013b) A dam problem: TVA’s fight against malaria, 1926–1951. J Econ Hist 73:694–724. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050713000582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law MT, Kim S (2005) Specialization and regulation: the rise of professionals and the emergence of occupational licensing regulation. J Econ Hist 65:723–756

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law MT, Marks MS (2009) Effects of occupational licensing laws on minorities: evidence from the Progressive Era. J Law Econ 52:351–366. https://doi.org/10.1086/596714

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ludmerer KR (1985) Learning to heal: the development of American medical education. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Meckel RA (1990) Save the babies: American public health reform and the prevention of infant mortality, 1850–1929. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Meeker E (1972) The improving health of the United States, 1850–1915. Explor Econ Hist 9:353–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller G (2008) Women’s suffrage, political responsiveness, and child survival in American history. Q J Econ 123:1287–1327. https://doi.org/10.1162/qjec.2008.123.3.1287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moehling CM, Thomasson MA (2014) Saving babies: the impact of public education programs on infant mortality. Demography 51:367–386

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moehling CM, Niemesh GT, Thomasson MA, Treber J (2018) Medical education reforms and the origins of the rural physician shortage

    Google Scholar 

  • Moehling CM, Niemesh GT, Thomasson MA (2018) Shut Down and Shut Out: Women Physicians in the Era of Medical Education Reform. Unpublished working paper

    Google Scholar 

  • Mokyr J, Stein R (1996) Science, health and household technology: the effect of the Pasteur revolution on consumer demand. In: Bresnahan TF, Gordon RJ (eds) The economics of new goods. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore JD, Smith DG (2005) Legislating Medicaid: considering Medicaid and its origins. Health Care Financ Rev 27:8

    Google Scholar 

  • Murray JE (2007) Origins of American health insurance: a history of industrial sickness funds. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Niemesh GT (2015) Ironing out deficiencies: evidence from the United States on the economic effects of iron deficiency. J Hum Resour 50:910–958. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.50.4.910

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preston S, Haines MR (1991) Fatal years: child mortality in late nineteenth-century America. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Steckel RH (1995) Stature and the standard of living. J Econ Lit 33:1903–1940

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutch R (2006) National income and product. In: Carter SB, Gartner SS, Haines MR, Olmstead AL, Sutch R, Wright G (eds) Historical statistics of the United States: millennial edition, vol 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Sylla RE, Legler JB, Wallis J (1993) Sources and Uses of Funds in State and Local Governments, 1790–1915: [United States]. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor]. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR09728.v1

  • Thomasson MA (2002) From sickness to health: the twentieth century development of U.S. health insurance. Explor Econ Hist 39:233–253

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomasson MA (2003) The importance of group coverage: how tax policy shaped U.S. health insurance. Am Econ Rev 93:1373–1384

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thomasson MA, Treber J (2008) From home to hospital: the evolution of childbirth in the United States, 1928–1940. Explor Econ Hist 45:76–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Troesken W (2004) Water, race, and disease. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Troesken W (2006) The great lead water pipe disaster. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Troesken W (2008) Lead water pipes and infant mortality at the turn of the twentieth century. J Hum Resour 43:553–575. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.43.3.553

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Congress. Senate. Special Committee on Aging (1964) Blue Cross and private health insurance coverage of older Americans. Government Printing Office, 88th Congress, 2d. Sess

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (1899) Bureau of Labor Statistics bulletin, #24, 30, 36, and 42

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Bureau of the Census (1904) Census bulletin, #20

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Bureau of the Census (1907) Statistics of cities having a population of over 30,000, 1905 (and through 1908 annually). United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Bureau of the Census (1909) Financial statistics of cities having a population of over 30,000, 1909 (and 1910–1913, 1915–1919, 1921–1930). United States. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • United States Commissioner of Education (1895–1900) Report of the Commissioner of Education. United States Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Wertz RW, Wertz DC (1989) Lying-in: a history of childbirth in America. Yale University Press, New Haven/London

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Economics, Miami University, Oxford, OH, USA

    Gregory T. Niemesh & Melissa A. Thomasson

  2. NBER, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Gregory T. Niemesh & Melissa A. Thomasson

Authors
  1. Gregory T. Niemesh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Melissa A. Thomasson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gregory T. Niemesh or Melissa A. Thomasson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. BETA/CNRS (UMR 7522), University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study, Strasbourg Cedex, France

    Claude Diebolt

  2. University of Wisconsin Department of Economics, La Crosse, WI, USA

    Michael Haupert

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Niemesh, G.T., Thomasson, M.A. (2019). Improvements in Health and the Organization and Development of Health Care and Health Insurance Markets. In: Diebolt, C., Haupert, M. (eds) Handbook of Cliometrics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_77-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40458-0_77-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40458-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40458-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation