Hill-Burton Act
The Hill-Burton Act has contributed significantly to the historical record of medical policy interventions. The Act was passed in 1946, and it gave nursing homes, hospitals, and other medical providers grants to put up new facilities and modernize the existing medical facilities. In return, the health providers mentioned above, were to offer medical services to the community members regardless of their financial capabilities. Initially, the Act provided an annual government funding of seventy-five million dollars, which was later raised to one hundred and fifty million dollars by 1949. Chung et al. (2017) show that the states were allocated with grants to fund a hospital and assess the hospital’s needs. Over the years, different medical practitioners have expressed a lack of support for the Hill-Burton Act’s passage. This paper will evaluate the achievements and the relevance of the Act mentioned above.
Firstly, the Hill-Burton Act established that there was a need to improve the hospital bed-patient ration. The Act proposed the establishment of 4.5 beds for every 1000 peoples. However, most practitioners have disregarded the use of increased bed ratios in hospitals. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services reported that the Act addressed only one side of the medical policy. The raised bed capacity improved access to the medical services but failed to address the cost of offering and accessing the medical services. According to Engle (2020), the Act’s programs stopped extending funding in 1997. However, around one hundred and forty medical facilities are still required to offer reduced or free medical services. The failure to continue funding its programs has demonstrated the unsustainability of the government funding programs, which later leaves the individuals, healthcare providers, and hospitals to cover the costs on their own.
The Hill-Burton Act significantly contributed to the improvement of health services in the United States. Firstly, Garno and Bennett (2017) show that the Act was responsible for the construction of almost a third of hospitals in America by 1975. The Act also contributed to the construction of about six thousand eight hundred health facilities in four thousand communities in the U.S. The health facilities mentioned above included the hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and clinics, among others. Moreover, the Act leads to the establishment of ideas that are, in effect, up to date. For instance, the Act provided that the health facilities receiving federal government financing offered subsidized services to some of their indigent patients. This idea is still utilized today.
In conclusion, despite the Hill-Burton act inability to address the cost reduction of the medical services, the Act has contributed to the evolvement of the U.S. medical sector. The Act is relevant in the provision of healthcare. It has enabled the construction of new health facilities and the establishment of policies that have improved the provision of health services.
References
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. (n. d) Medical Treatment in Hill-Burton Funded Healthcare Facilities. Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/civil-rights/for-individuals/hill-burton/index.html
Chung, A. P., Gaynor, M., & Richards-Shubik, S. (2017). Subsidies and structure: the lasting impact of the Hill-Burton program on the hospital industry. Review of Economics and Statistics, 99(5), 926-943.
Garno, M., & Bennett, C. (2017). 2 Teaching the Ethics of Caring: Using Nursing History to Integrate Race Consciousness into Professional Values. Promoting Social Justice through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15.
Engle, L. (2020 April, 10). Hill-Burton Act today. Retrieved from https://www.medicarefaq.com/blog/hill-burton-act/