title: Health care reform: Part I.
abstract: The provision of access to quality health care services and the restraint of rapidly escalating health care costs are dominant policy issues. This article traces governmental and private efforts to develop a health insurance program and enact various reforms from the beginning of the 20th century to 1980. Problems and challenges that influence the current debate will be shown to have existed over the past several decades.
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Elwood
mesh_terms: D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends; D006291:Health Policy / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009310:National Health Insurance, United States / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States