Health care and medical practice in the new world (1600-1800) -- Health care and regulation in antebellum America (1800-1860) -- The professionalization of American medicine (1860-1890) -- Health care in the progressive era (1890-1920) -- The struggle over health insurance between the wars (1920-1940) -- Partisan jousting over health care in the postwar era (1940-1960) -- Medicare changes the health care landscape (1960-1980) -- Restraining health care costs in the age of Reagan (1980-1990) -- The Clinton health plan and scorched-earth politics (1990-2000) -- Controversial policy prescriptions for American health care (2000-2010).