The 1970s Medicine and Health: Overview

Health care was a critical concern in America in the 1970s. Although the medical and health industries grew rapidly during the decade to become second only to the military in size and cost, many Americans still lacked access to basic health care. Technological advances in other industries made their way into the medical field, resulting in revolutionary devices such as computerized axial tomography (CAT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners. These and other scientific breakthroughs helped improve medical care and extended the lives of many people.

But these advances also raised philosophical issues of life and death, including ethical dilemmas regarding quality of life. The tragic case of Karen Ann Quinlan forced the medical community, the legal system, and average Americans to debate this issue openly for the first time. Like the contentious issue of abortion, also legally addressed in the 1970s, advocates on both sides of the right-to-die issue believed their views were morally correct.

As medical issues increasingly made headlines in the decade, people began to exercise to improve their own health. From bicycling to yoga, on dirt paths and in fancy health clubs, people across the country joined in what became known as the fitness movement. Jogging or running was the exercise of choice for millions of Americans, and women became as active as men in the pursuit of personal health and well-being.

Despite this movement, traditional health problems—heart disease, cancer, and stroke—continued to plague many Americans, and health care costs were skyrocketing. Seeking to stem those rising costs and make health care more affordable, the federal government enacted laws to help develop prepaid, group health plans called health maintenance organizations, or HMOs. These plans, in which subscribers paid a set monthly fee for basic medical services, marked a big change from the old fee-for-service arrangement under which a patient paid for each separate visit and service at a doctor's office.

Medical researchers in governmental agencies also worked with other scientists to identify and combat previously unknown viruses that had the potential to threaten large segments of American society. Lyme disease and Legionnaires' disease were two new diseases addressed successfully by timely and effective government response. But the government could also act blindly, perceiving a health threat that never emerged. This was the case with swine flu, and many people died because of the error.