America's Safety Net
The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time?
- Andrew B. Bindman, MD;
- Kevin Grumbach, MD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
Excerpt
THE PLIGHT of Americans without adequate access to health care captures public attention when vivid instances of human suffering occur. In the 1980s, there was public outcry over "patient dumping" in response to numerous reports about uninsured patients dying after being refused care at private hospital emergency departments.1,2 Congress and many state legislatures responded by enacting strict sanctions against the transfer of patients in unstable condition. Absent media stories about patients "dying in the streets," the sense of urgency about problems of access to care tends to dissipate. It becomes easy to believe that a safety net is in place and that care is available for all Americans, even the poor and uninsured, when they really need it.
The article by Weissman et al3 in this issue of JAMA confirms the presence of a health care "safety net" for the poor, but suggests that low-income patients may not
Footnotes
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Reprint requests to San Francisco General Hospital, Room 5H-22, 1001 Potrero Ave, San Francisco, CA 94110 (Dr Bindman).
