Social Welfare Policy - Essay Example

Initially there were problems in the medical sector in America because the sector had not embraced scientific medicine. The practice of medicine was not regulated and different people practiced it. There were a lot of medical problems arising from the way it was practiced.  During 1800s, principles of treatment had not changed since the time of Hippocrates (Popple and Leighninger 2003). Treatment of the diseases continued with the use drugs and chemicals, bloodletting and exposure to various elements, which were believed to heal the person.

Modern medicine has referred to those processes as purely unnecessarily as compared to the current practices. Most of these procedures ended as harmful to the person rather than being beneficial to the person.  An example is given in who a pregnant woman who had convulsions as the delivery approached was bled of eight ounce of bloods and given a purgative. However the woman did not stop suffering from the convulsions. The following day she suffered more convulsions and medical practitioners drew twenty-two ounces of blood once more.

This medical procedure was more harmful since the symptoms led to more bloodletting, which later caused vomiting, ice packs on the head and mustard plasters on the feet. At the end the woman ended up delivering a stillborn child. (Popple and Leighninger 2003) The procedure of administering medicine was not organized and domestic medicine was common. Wives mothers were in-charge of healing. This was usually practiced at home level.  On the foal level, there were practitioners with some type of training in medicine.

There were lay healers like herbalist; regular physicians who had graduated from medical schools; homeopathic doctors who used spiritual aspects and use of small doses of drugs to cure diseases. Women were midwives. Hospitals were considered as the last result.(Popple and Leighninger 2003) Hence from this analysis is can be seen that the main problem that was facing the medical field in the early days was incoherent provision of medical services. There was no legal framework, which governed provision of medical services to the public.

The delicate nature of human life necessitated coming up with a policy, which governed provision of medical services. The original policy The revolutionary movement of 1800s led to changes in sanitary practices. This was the starting point in the reformation of the health sector and the enactment of health policy. This was catalyzed by the growth of germs theory of disease, which catalyzed the rise of scientific medicine. Sanitary reforms started off in 1860s and were backed by the passing of Public Health Reform bill in 1848.

(Hamlin and Sheard, 1998) This can be recognized as the first form of health policy to be enacted in the United States. The rise of scienti