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The growth of public-sector and private-sector programs in a market economy increased
the need for program management, including the functions of planning, administration, legislation, and regulation. Planning for health services were instituted at the national level with the 1966 Comprehensive Health Planning and at the local level by hospital planning councils. Important about civil services health services legislation preceded World War II: the 1935 Social Security Act included a number of titles authorizing health services for children, people with disabilities, and others. The SSA became the umbrella in the mid-1960s for other significant health legislation, including Medicare and Medicaid. A spate of additional health legislation was authorized independently of the SSA; these programs stimulated the development of multiple regulations for their full implementation. Much of the change in the U.S. system is occurring in the delivery system component. The growth of a health services system depends on the level of economic support available to it. Thirty-five percent of the economic support for the U.S. system in the year 2004 came from private health insurance, 45 percent came from the federal government in the form of tax-generated revenue and trust funds and from state revenues, 13 percent came from individual out-of-pocket payments, and 7 percent came from foundations and other charitable sources. Other resources, such as a workforce and facilities, are essential to a health services system. The health workforce continues to grow. Between 1960 and 1990, the supply of U.S. physicians increased 55 percent. By the mid-1970s, the United States had doubled its capacity to train physicians in an effort to meet perceived workforce shortages. Growth in these and about IAS exam other professions has been aided by governmental support to expand educational opportunities. New professions have emerged to meet new needs: the number of billing and reimbursement specialists and business-trained administrators is growing to keep pace with the increasingly contractual nature of the U.S. health services industry. Over 871,000 physicians were licensed to practice in the United States in 2003. The number of nurses has remained relatively constant at about 2.2 million, yet many work settings continue to experience a nurse shortage. The growth of the health services system, the increasing expenditures required sustaining it; the significant number of people without access to care, and the projections of increased demand from an aging population are stimulating changes in both the financing and delivery systems. The development of health facilities reflects the growing and changing health services system. Beginning in 1946, the growth in the number of hospitals and other kinds of health facilities was assisted by federal funds. Hospitals, until recently the hub of the system, grew in number and size until the 1980s. In the increasingly competitive 1990s through 2005, however, the overall number of hospitals declined, the number of licensed beds decreased, and the development of outpatient services and facilities mushroomed to reflect the changing delivery system. However, increases in hospital spending for both inpatient and outpatient services and also in Medicare hospital spending suggest that the hospital sector is once again growing.