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James C. Blankenship, MD
Geisinger Medical Center Danville, Pa

JAMA. 1993;270(13):1546.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—In an era when medicine is in danger of "quickly changing from a servant profession into a business,"¹ physicians have been urged to "choose the road of responsible professionalism and personal sacrifice."² The editor of JAMA suggested in 1989 that each physician devote 50 hours per year to caring for those who cannot pay.³ An American Medical Association survey in 1990 determined that 64% of physicians surveyed spent an average of 10.6% of their time in the previous week providing free or reduced-cost care.⁴ However, financial pressures and the prominence of "universal coverage" in the national health care debate may deter physicians now entering practice from donating their professional services.

We surveyed graduating physicians to assess their attitudes toward providing care for those who can't pay. Surveys were sent to all 75 physicians graduating in 1993 from 21 residency and fellowship programs at . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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