Health Insurance in 1963

[MineralMan]

Back in that time, when I went off to a state college in California as a Freshman, I knew nothing about health insurance. My parents didn't have it. I had never heard of it. My family doctor charged $5 for an office visit at the time. He invariably treated everything with a Penicillin injection in the Gluteus maximus at no extra cost.

But, one of the requirements at that state school was that all dorm residents had to have health insurance. All Freshmen and Sophomores were required to live in the dorms at that time. The school had a medical clinic, which was also a four-bed hospital. The health insurance cost about $60 per three-month quarter, and covered all basic care and treatments, including pharmaceuticals.

The clinic was great. You walked in, sat down in the waiting room and got seen by a doctor after a wait of unpredictable time. One kid on my floor in the dorm got appendicitis. They did the surgery at the clinic and he spent a couple of days in one of the four beds at the health center.

One other advantage was a very important one. In California, at that time, it was illegal to sell condoms to any unmarried person under the age of 21. It was the last gasp of Catholic Church-sponsored laws against contraception. So, what did the Student Health Center do? They didn't sell condoms. Instead, they had a giant fish bowl in the waiting area full of assorted condoms. They just gave them away. In 1964, the health center began prescribing the brand-new birth control pill to all comers. It was free at the health center's pharmacy.

[Aristus]

1. A penicillin injection for everything, huh?

$5 is too much to pay to a quack...

[MineralMan]

3. Pretty much, yes.

I do not want to remember how many of those shots I got at the time. Standard practice in the 50s and early 60s.

[Aristus]

6. I presume they had medical schools back then.

Is that the best they could do? One-size-fits-all medicine has never been a good idea, even back in the days of bleeding, blistering, and mustard poultices.

[Ohiogal]

7. I am old enough

to remember the doctor coming to your house to give you the shot in the gluteus maximus! Once he gave both me and my sister one, we had to lie down on the couch. Two for one, I guess!

[MineralMan]

9. Yes. I remember house calls, too.

Those shots hurt! Yikes!

[Ohiogal]

10. You bet!!!!

[TygrBright]

48. Yup, those and B-12 injections.

These youngsters tend to forget how much of the formulary (not to mention all the medical technology) was developed in the 70s and 80s.

The 50s and 60s were an odd intersticial between not really grasping the complexity of human health and the many factors that affect it, and having the tools to address more and more of the issues.

And due to the relatively limited nature of the options (not to mention the emerging horror stories about untried new tools ::koff::Thalidomide::koff:: ) Doctors also had a healthy respect for letting the body's own healing mechanisms take their course, even if it took longer and involved more discomfort than some of the new 'magic bullet' tools.

reminiscently,
Bright

[Hekate]

34. Penicillin was the first of the Wonder Drugs, iirc, and it saved many lives...

Using the Gold Standard of the time on your patients, and affordably, is hardly quackery.

[TwistOneUp]

36. It is if you don't ask them...

Are you allergic to penicillin?

Giving a person who is allergic to penicillin a penicillin shot is malpractice, actually.

[Hekate]

44. 1963. In reference to children, you ask their parents, who are presumed to know. And the OP ...

...seemed to indicate that his parents were told each time what their children's medications would be.

In answer to your personal question: I used penicillin safely as needed until I developed a postpartum infection at age 28, in 1976. It had traveled up one fallopian tube and into an ovary by the time I got treatment. I was prescribed a massive oral dose of penicillin for two weeks -- and on the 8th day I developed hives from my scalp down to the soles of my feet, so the doc and I agreed that was the end of that treatment. I now wear a tag indicating my allergy when I leave the house.

I am also aware of the misuse of antibiotics by Agribusiness, just so you know.

None of that negates the historic development of the so-called Wonder Drugs in the 20th Century. Millions of people lived who otherwise would have died, amputations were prevented, and so on. That was then, this is now, don't confuse the two.

[TwistOneUp]

47. Nosy?

Free speech, Ms./Mr. Snotty Comment.

[Hekate]

49. Has nothing to do with "free speech," for gods' sake. I retract it because I was unnecessarily rude.

Sorry about my momentary irritability.

But "free speech" refers not to manners, good or otherwise, but to the government's ability to interfere with what you say.

[TwistOneUp]

53. I accept your apology, thanks.

But Free Speech means exactly that. Not when someone says something "in good taste". Free speech is meant to challenge "good taste".

"Comfort the disturbed, and disturb the comfortable,"
--Anonymous, sometimes attributed to Dorothy Parker

Thank you again for the apology.

[MyNameGoesHere]

50. It was nosey and illegal to ask about personal medical

Questions. Civics lessons on free speech should be free and well attended.

[TwistOneUp]

54. I wasn't asking a personal question, Miss Wrong Manners

Please read my response to Hekate, above.

[MyNameGoesHere]

60. Miss? You're just being a tad obnoxious now

You should stop before the inevitable happens.

[Hekate]

66. Someone seems to be having a bad day, right?

[Aristus]

42. There are a lot of gold standard medications that I use in my practice.

I just don't use them if they are not indicated. A little bit of science can clear up the question.

[Hekate]

45. Exactly.

[The Genealogist]

2. He universities I attended both had on campus medical care

No required insurance at either institution, but you did pay fees each semester, which included some medical services. You could see a doctor without any fees, and get certain shots with no fee. Most available services and pharmaceuticals were discounted and reasonably priced. It wasnt a bad system, at either school.

[MineralMan]

4. Yes. In a way, it was my first introduction to the concept of

universal health care. When I was in the USAF, after dropping out of school, we had it, too. We need it for everyone.

[saidsimplesimon]

5. Birth control is a moral

alternative to abortion. The current Republican way is to create a society like "The Handmaiden's Tale".

It is my opinion that extremist Republican women are in charge of this charade. They control the pocket book.

[ehrnst]

37. Actually, continuing a pregnancy is the alternative to abortion.

Once you are pregnant, contraception is a moot issue. And many women who use contraception experience failure, and then have a childbearing decision to make - which is sometimes abortion.

In the same way adoption is not an alternative to abortion, because adoption is a parenting decision, and abortion is a childbearing decision.

Semantics are often used to confuse the issue, so I just wanted to be sure to point that out.

I also think that women have been the only ones in GOP leadership who have defended choice, the few times that it has occurred among the GOP.

[Mariana]

69. Because it would never occur to men to restrict women's rights.

It must be the fault of the women.

[Bucky]

8. What changed?

* Doctor salaries have gone up relative to national inflation.
* Staffs for medical offices have gotten bigger
* Doctors themselves have gotten more specialized, which drive up costs
* Office rental rates have shot up dramatically (this is why Adam Smith hated landlords - they extract money without adiing wealth or services to the economy)
* Malpractice insurance rates have mushroomed (we're more litigious than before and insurance companies are more profit-driven)
* Meds and treatments have also jumped in price due to more federal regulation (which is necessary, but costly) and more market specialization.
plus....
* Just normal inflation. Any inflation calculator will tell you a $5 doctor's visit from 1963 would cost $41.32 today, which sounds like a reasonable co-pay to me.

[PSPS]

12. It's more fundamental than that

Back in the 60's, health insurance was still a proper pooled-risk model. Since then, it has turned into a policyholder-risk model which is completely contrary to how health insurance is supposed to work.

[Bucky]

24. Help me out. Isn't the pool in a pooled risk essentially the policy holders?

What's the difference between a "pooled-risk model" and a "policyholder-risk model"?

For me, that's pretty much the benefit of expanding medicare to include anyone who's not insured in the free market.
Just like we have private schools for people who want to pay more and public schools for people who only want nominal costs.
Just like we have UPS and FedEx for people who want to pay more and USPS for people who only want nominal costs.

[haele]

76. Policy holder risk - the Insurance Co. dictates level of insurance they'll cover on your policy.

Your policy coverage or cost can go up and down depending on what the Insurance Company decides what is more in their interest. You may be a stakeholder, but you're not a shareholder in the company. You are the product, not the customer.
My FIL used to be in upper management (VP level) at several major Insurance companies, almost made it to BOD circle status if his then-wife hadn't become fatally ill and he had to quit to spend time with her.
He always told us that the very first thing he learned as an executive is that the Customers to all publically traded Insurance Companies are their shareholders, not their policy holders. The policy holders are the product.

Pooled-risk model - is a mutual risk model based on overall membership. More like a credit union, the overall health of the members drives the focus of the decisions on policies. Pooled risk is not as concerned about profits as it is in sustainment - and if you don't have to make a profit to attract investors, it's easier to sustain the members.

Haele

[MineralMan]

51. That's why I'm a single-pool, single-payer advocate.

Birth to the grave, you're in the pool.

[Hekate]

35. Add to that the staggering cost of medical school, which leaves young docs heavily in debt for years

nt

[Wounded Bear]

68. Most hospitals were non-profits back then, too...

There was a fairly extensive network of county hospitals. Most doctors in urban/suburban areas worked in clinics.

Unions ran medical benefits plans and insurance for worker in many cases.

Now, everything it profitized, which means everything increases in price.

[dixiegrrrrl]

71. Insurance is what changed.

Think about it. Up until mid-seventies, we could afford out of pocket dr. visits.
and even have a savings account for emergencies, on one salary.
My spouse back then worked for Boeing, the same job for 30 years, btw.
good blue collar pay, at the time.


The only insurance back then was life insurance. I can't even remember that we had auto insurance.

But gradually medical insurance crept in. And a vicious cycle was created. Medical costs went up, 'cause insurance paid for most services/tests, etc. Insurance premiums then increased to cover more medical costs.
Somehow we ended up with giant insurance companies that could afford to fill tall buildings with employees, then the medical profession had to hire more people just for billing services, etc.

Those costs came out of our wallets.

now auto and health insurance is mandatory. I still can't get over how people just accept that. It appears to be normal by now.
Mine is the last generation that knew a better cheaper system.

[snowybirdie]

11. Daughter was born

in 62. Total hospital Bill for all impatient care, birth and nursery, with a four day stay, was $350 or so!

[MineralMan]

15. Yes. That still represented a big expense for young families though.

But, inflation doesn't cover the increase since then. Other factors are involved.

[Bucky]

25. That's like $2930 today

Of course hardly anyone gets a 4 day hospital stay today. But that's a soberingly high cost

[watoos]

27. Daughter had a preemie baby 5 years ago,

she had a 2 day hospital stay and baby 7 1/2 weeks. This was at McGee Hospital in Pittsburgh. Her bill was $246,000. She has Cadillac insurance, she paid around $400.00.

[Midnightwalk]

13. Did they work?

In 1964, the health center began prescribing the brand-new birth control pill to all comers.

I'm guessing they were effective and you never got pregnant

[MineralMan]

14. If I got pregnant, it would be a true miracle.

I have never caused a pregnancy. That was a deliberate decision. I took full advantage of the condom bowl. How would I know if someone was reliably taking the pill every day?

[gopiscrap]

16. I was born in 1957 in Germany

Germany had universal health care. As an infant I contracted a case of encephalitis. I was in intensive care for 3 weeks and in the hospital for 11 weeks. My parents got a bill for what would be today about 185.00 for all that care.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

17. Everyone under the age of 70 or so who reads the OP

needs to keep in mind that in 1963 there was no cure and very little care for all kinds of things. Cancer, for instance, was never mentioned in polite company, and mostly it was fatal pretty quickly. Everyone expected to get measles, mumps, rubella, and chicken pox as a child. Most of us recovered. By 1963 whooping cough was quite rare, thanks to the DPT shot which was common by the late 1940s. That vaccine made diphtheria extremely rare also.

I was a child when the Salk vaccine first came out, so I never got polio but I went to school with a couple of kids who'd had it, and likewise knew adults who'd gotten it.

Back in the 1960s organ transplants were not even science fiction. Now they are all but routine. Lots of old people had difficulty walking and wound up wheelchair, perhaps even bed bound. Now hip and knee transplants are routine.

I remember when kidney dialysis first came about, and there were so few dialysis machines that hospitals had committees to decide who deserved to get dialysis and who didn't.

In short, among the reasons health care today is so much more expensive, is that it's advanced tremendously in the past half century. Yeah, in this country we have a huge problem with the for-profit aspect, but it is not the only thing in play. Once we remove the profit aspect, which I hope will happen soon, medical care will still be expensive.

Oh, and when I was a part time student at the University of Minnesota in the fall of 1982, a health care premium was built into our tuition. When I tripped over my own two feet and broke an ankle on campus, I didn't have to pay anything at all for that care. I did have to pay some small amount to rent crutches, but nothing for the ankle.

[MineralMan]

18. That's all very true.

We still need universal health care. At some point, everyone will require medical care. Everyone. All should be entitled to receive it, regardless of ability to pay. In my ideal world, everyone would be entitled to all available medical care, and nobody would be allowed to have any sort of care that was not available to all. That would help keep things even and would influence decisions about costly care. If you want it available, you have to contribute to making it available to everyone.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

19. Absolutely.

My post above is not intended to justify anything else. Just point out what you and I are old enough to remember.

[MiniMe]

20. Maybe under 60

I had Measles, mumps, chicken pox as a kid. Never got rubella that I am aware of, so I either got it and was never diagnosed or I was lucky.

[Hekate]

38. Regarding rubella, check into getting a vax if you have not had it. Not for your protection, but for

...the protection of any unborn children you might meet. It's a mild disease, unless your unvaccinated mommy gets it while carrying you, and then you get to be blind and/or profoundly deaf for life.

And yeah, I had all that great stuff as a kid too. My brother would always get whatever was going around first, then myself, then the baby. We older two were miserable, and our mother was kept busy with home nursing, but the baby's health was compromised for years to come. Our doc gave us gamma globulin by injection. I don't know how much penicillin was in the mix.

The same doc visited my mother at home when she was too sick to drive to him, and too poor to go to a hospital, where she probably should have been. But I was little and didn't put the pieces together till later.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

62. There was probably no penicillin in the gamma globulin injection.

I was very young, a bit over a year, when my older sister got chicken pox. Mom brought me to the doctor who gave me a gamma globulin shot, and while I had some of the other symptoms, I never broke out in pox. Sister had a very bad case and had scars on her forehead well into adulthood.

[Hekate]

65. I misspoke. I meant "in the mix of various meds that might be given." Yeah, people don't know...

...just how bad "childhood illnesses" can be. Mom said she had pox in her ears, inside her mouth, on her tongue -- ugh.

[luvtheGWN]

41. As I recall, red measles (as opposed to German measles, aka rubella)

were the kind that most of us got. Rubella vaccine became available in the early 70's and many young women, myself included, got the vaccine because contacting rubella while pregnant could have very damaging effects on the fetus.

I shall never, EVER understand the anti-vaxxers, and all I can say is that they are both stupid and selfish -- not to mention bad parents.

[MineralMan]

52. Yup. I had every childhood disease as a child, except

diphtheria. I never knew anyone who got that. But the rest, you bet.

[MiniMe]

55. Never got Diptheria either, or Whooping Cough

[LeftInTX]

57. You probably had rubella and didn't know it

I'm a she and rubella during pregnancy was the Zika of the day

I never had it, so I thought I would need to get the vaccine, so I got myself checked out. I already had the antibodies.

Rubella can be extremely mild and often doesn't have a rash.

[MiniMe]

61. Very possible

[Blue_true]

23. You make excellent points.

Today people are getting healthcare for things that were a death sentence within a few months in 1963. People that got cancer just waited to die, no miracle medicines, no radiation treatment, they just died, maybe they got morphine prescribed to kill the pain.

I agree that healthcare will continue to be expensive. But there are things that can be done. First everyone need to be provided with health insurance. Second, preventative healthcare need to be driven into people's skulls by doctors, nurses, insurers. Third, hospitals should use one central diagnostic facility for all patients that are not immobile - for example, things like blood tests, radiology, smears, general X-rays can be done in a central facility for hospitals that are physically close - that way the hospitals themselves can avoid the cost of purchasing and maintaining equipment that get a relative low level of use (compared to that at a central facility). The town closest to me is a perfect example. It has two big hospitals across the street from eachother, both have their own full labs - there is no reason for that, they can share a central facility that can be setup near them.

[watoos]

30. Did you see the statistics that just came out?

In 2017 our life expectancy in the U.S. went down. Sadly some of the reason was because our suicide rates are going up, nonetheless, this statistic is revealing.

[Hekate]

39. Suicide -- and the opioid epidemic

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

63. Yes, I saw that it went down, but it went down

a pretty trivial amount, about a month, which strikes me as if it could be a rounding error. Probably not, because it's being presented as quite real, and hopefully the statisticians doing that work know exactly what they are doing. Do keep in mind that's life expectancy at birth, which doesn't affect those of us already born.

[Moostache]

40. This may not remain true much longer...

Back in the 1960s organ transplants were not even science fiction. Now they are all but routine.

At the rate we are losing ground in the war against microbial pathogens, we may not be able to safely conduct organ transplants or open heart surgery 20 or 30 years from now without a massive risk of killing the patient via acquired infections.

People abusing antibiotics and corporations deciding that without profit potential (antibiotics are fiendishly hard to develop and not exactly a profit center to sell), we are in a silent crisis that most people remain blissfully unaware of...which is EXACTLY the problem with America today - we are a nation of imbeciles with no attention span, complete scientific illiteracy, no sense of common good or civic duty and a nasty habit of buying things we don't need (like the newest I-Phone LVII with retinal scanners and implants to allow access to the phone just by thinking about phones) in place of actually continuing to educate and improve ourselves.

Damn near everyone can identify Taylor Swift, yet 95% of Americans probably have no idea who Jonathan Swift was any longer...

We can converse at length about the vagaries of the College Football Playoffs, yet climate change befuddles so many people that pseudoscientists have successfully delayed a global response and any American leadership on the issue for DECADES...

People whine about TV personalities dominating the discussions, yet no one turns the channel or makes a cogent argument about anything on the TV in the first place, or makes an argument for controlling the use of the medium for nefarious gains and brain washing (aka "Fox News&quot ...

We live in a society with instant access to the wisdom of the ages, instant accessibility to scientific publications and peer reviewed articles and yet we still have an abundance of morons that would rather watch COPS reruns than actually learn something new...

Society is on its knees right now. The members of society however remain blissfully unaware because the pictures of their Ramen bowl received more likes online than their best friend's ...

We are very busy earning our place in the ash heap of history indeed.

[violetpastille]

64. +1

We live in a society with instant access to the wisdom of the ages, instant accessibility to scientific publications and peer reviewed articles and yet we still have an abundance of morons that would rather watch COPS reruns than actually learn something new..

.

I remember being able to read all day, completely losing myself in books. Because reading material was limited to what I could get my hands on in my small town, I was indiscriminate. I would read absolutely anything to completion.

Now I have access to everything and anything and I find that I have the attention span of a gnat, with ADHD.

The difference is the internet. It has provided me with wealth of material beyond imagining, but it also reprogrammed my brain so that I actually have to discipline myself to finish an article online without becoming distracted and clicking away.

I am programmed to click away and keep clicking. I can feel the tug of addiction.

The remedy, I guess, is to go back in time, to get in the car with a shopping bag and hit the library stacks.

[LongtimeAZDem]

77. Just as an aside, Larry Niven was writing science fiction about organ transplants in the 60s :) /nt

[sinkingfeeling]

43. One other thing to consider. All of my grandparents were

born in the 1880's. None were overweight, much less obese. They did a variety of manual labor all their lives. None could not walk or relied on wheelchairs or canes. Same with my farmer parents. All of the women lived into their mid 90s. The men all had heart issues and all 3 died younger from fatal heart attacks.

Today, we have a huge percentage of unhealthy people being overweight, diabetic, riding around on scooters in stores.

Our live style is driving up medical costs as well as medical break throughs.

[LeftInTX]

58. Manual labor also has it's own issues

It's horrible on the joints.

My grandparents NEVER exercised. On set smoked like chimneys. Great grandparents who I never met died at 55, 64, 68. My paternal great grandparents survived until their 80s. Both of my grandfathers never made to 80. One of them smoked, but the other one didn't.

[essme]

67. Hate to say this, but I had several people in my family

One who just keeled over- who smoked like chimneys, and drank like fish. Never exercised. Died at 99, 98, and last one at 101.

[Blue_true]

21. I too didn't get consistent healthcare until I went to college.

The university had an infirmary that treated pretty much every problem short of a gunshot wound or a birth delivery.

[MineralMan]

22. After I graduated from college, I had

Blue Cross/Blue Shield group health insurance through the school's alumni association. I lost that when I moved to Minnesota, since it wasn't transferrable outside of California. My premiums went through the roof when I made the change. Thank goodness for Medicare.

[Blue_true]

70. After I graduated, I got hired by a major Corp and went into it's comprehensive HMO.

I had NO idea of how complicated and expensive getting health insurance was until I started out on my own.

The corporate coverage that I had for two decades covered everything at almost no cost to me, that simply can't be matched by an individual owned small business, just can't. That is why somehow small businesses must somehow gather into massive buying pools, because when they look for insurance individually, they get screwed. Big buying pools will force insures to drop rates and also bring in more options. When I was in corporate America, I seldom had fewer that 4 choices of insurers to choose from, now I am lucky if I get three to choose from. Some mega insurers don't even bother with the small company and individual markets.

[Shrike47]

26. I started college in 1965. Visits to the med center were free.

I got mononucleosis. The med center doc (whom I loved) let me look at slides of my blood cells to see what was happening.

I fell asleep during a final. Good times!

[MineralMan]

28. Yes, those were the days, in some ways.

[benld74]

29. Believe it was 1963 when I discovered I was allergic to penicillin

after a doctor's office visit. Keeled over in the small grocer next door afterwards. Freaked my mother clean out!

[MineralMan]

31. A lot of people were sensitized to penicillin that way.

Too bad, too.

[watoos]

32. Dentists back in those days were scarier.

[Hekate]

46. Hell yes

[sinkingfeeling]

33. Remember similar things from 1966 Ohio.

[LeftInTX]

56. It was the same during the 70s

My grandmother had a hysterectomy in 1980. She didn't speak English and had no formal education. So, she made me do the bills. The whole thing before insurance was under $1,000.

I never bothered to even use my insurance. I just paid the doctor. It wasn't worth the hassle of the forms.

[Codeine]

59. Penicillin in the ass -- I remember those days

My doctor as a kid in rural Wyoming was as old as he was old-school, and that magic syringe of penicillin came out with great frequency and little consultation.

Got so many of those damned shots I developed a sensitivity to the stuff. Goofy old bastard.

[MineralMan]

75. Well, the parents expected it, so there was that.

It was truly a miracle drug, actually. It's just that they didn't understand it all that well at the time. Since most upper respiratory illness are caused by viruses, which are not affected by antibiotics, they wasted all of that green mold stuff, and caused lots more problems.

Our old doctors were just one generation from the old sawbones doctors in the Civil War. Truly. They didn't know shit about disease. We're lucky we survived, really.

[essme]

72. One thing typically ignored is that if you made it past 35 years old in - insert year here -

You would usually live to about 70 years old, female or male, everywhere in the world. Toss in good genes to tack on 20 years.

What happens with a greater frequency to people everywhere before 35? Well let's see - war, industrial/work accidents, murder, childbirth, child illnesses, "woo hoo look at this, hold my beer/mead", etcetera.

This book written in 1930 by Logan Clendening used actuarial tables to say the same thing:

https://www.amazon.com/Human-Body-Logan-Clendening/dp/B000IABJ98

Drugs, diet, and other advances have a percentage of people living even longer but really just make it past 35...

[MineralMan]

73. That's absolutely true, but when you are 73, that's not much comfort.

When I was 45 years old, I somehow contracted viral encephalitis, which put me in a coma for a week and took me a couple of months to recover from. Thank goodness I had health insurance. Even with it, it cost me $20,000 for that illness.

Actuarial tables are predictive of entire populations, but are relatively useless on an individual basis.

[essme]

74. Well consider yourself in a bonus round!

All of humanity strives for that.

It is like gambling bonus rounds. Or Super Mario Cart.

But let me add one thing. Actuarial tables say that you will (if you are relatively healthy) likely live to, hold on, lets ease into this...about 83 or so. Once you hit 83 another set of odds pop up! Although the closer to 100 you get the lower the probabilities are.

Yes actuarial tables are for large groups but they are marvelous predictors of mortality as points in time change.