Those alarmed at current health care costs and nostalgic for those of times gone by generally fail to appreciate that policy makers in the 1920s considered health care too costly and were concerned that the majority of American households lacked access to it. As late as 1910, “the cost of health care treatment was considered a minor problem compared to the loss of wages due to sickness for most workers.” 1 In the early 1900s, patients either lived or died. Care was largely limited to pre- venting disease by keeping clean, recommending good diets, providing good nursing, performing basic surgery, and praying for a rapid recovery. Although Semmelweis had.