Health care history
The current health insurance schemes that are provided by the employers in America came as a result of the unintended tax breaks that were launched in America way back in the 1940s (Schumpeter, 1938). The tax breaks that were initiated during those years formed the foundation under which the current healthcare programs are based. The healthcare industry has undergone a number of struggles and reforms over the past several decades because of the numerous reforms that have been initiated in the past years. Before the commencement of World War 2, a good majority of the Americans had to pay for their own medical bills because no employer by then was ready to offer a health insurance scheme for their employees. By that time, the employees had two alternatives of taking care of their medical bills. The first option was through paying their medical bills directly to the hospitals they owed the money (Thomas, 2000). The second option was to use the health insurance scheme that was provided by Blue Cross, which was a non-profit organization.

Assignment:Health Care History

Assignment:Health Care History

Assignment:Health Care History

Blue Corp Insurance
The Blue corp institution was created for the purposes of providing a guaranteed service to its customers within certain fixed rates. By that time the insurance cover that was offered by Blue cross was valued by those who used it because it came at a time when those who were in the employment circles could not afford to pay the bills because such expenses were beyond their financial capabilities. The Blue Cross scheme provided coverage for items such as hospitalization bills that were considered to be quite high during that time. The other expenses that were incurred by the patients were paid directly from their pockets to the providers of the health services.

Rise in medical cover
The most familiar form of employment insurance started to be introduced some decades after the end of World War 2. The stability of most nations in terms of their financial capabilities is what led to the introduction of the employment-based insurance. After that there was an expansion that came about as a result of the employers getting exempted from the payments of insurance covers from their employees. By the time the world was in the mid-1950s, it was approximated that close to forty five percent of the entire work force had hospital insurance. After a duration of sixteen years, the percentage of those who had the insurance cover increased from the initial forty five percent to a new figure of seventy seven percent. Additionally, it was estimated that close to more than half of the entire population had a health cover for their regular medical expenses for the short term illnesses. Similarly, statics indicate that one fourth of the population by that time had a medical insurance for their major illnesses.

Decline in medical cover
By 1980s, the employer-based medical coverage was thought to have gotten to its peak level, but since then the number of those covered has been on the decline. Experts believe that the decline in employment-based medical coverage is a result of the increase in difficulty financial times. Moreover, the financial crisis that had hit the world was a major contributor to the drop in the number of those who get medical insurance cover. The institute of employee benefit and research did a research and established that between the year 1987 and 1999, the number of employees with medical covers dropped significantly. Their research results indicate that the number of those who had the medical insurance fell by approximately 2.8 percent between the two years already mentioned above. Between 1999 and 2004, the population that was under medical insurance fell from 3.5 percent to an all time low of 2.8 percent. It therefore shows that the percentage of employees who were under employment based insurance fell by a margin of 6.3 percent between 1987 and 2004.

Effects on financial decisions
Initially, the insurance schemes were in the form of quasi-social schemes but that has since changed to insurance covers that are based on the actuarial principles. The actuarial principles type of insurance primarily assumes that the risks faced by the employees are not predictable for either an individual or a group of individuals. If however, it happens that the risks become predictable in advance, then the premium amount that is paid by such individuals is adjusted upwards. On the contrary to the actuarial principle, the initial social insurance never categorized the risks faced the different sets of employees. Everyone paid the same amount of money irrespective of their risks; therefore the issue of differential premiums was not in existence. The excess costs of the more risky employees would be shared equally between the entire set of employees. What the above statement means is that the employees with low risks pay the same amount with those who are associated with high risks. In market terms it would be said that the two set of employees cross-subsidize their risks.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.