The Problems of Medical Care for Indigent Populations
| Autor: | Alonzo S. Yerby |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 1965 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
media_common.quotation_subject Population New York Uncompensated Care Commission Profiteering Lease Infant Mortality medicine Humans Obligation education Industrial Revolution Poverty Duty media_common education.field_of_study business.industry Articles General Medicine Possession (law) Maternal Mortality Family medicine Law Comprehensive Health Care business Public Health Administration |
| Zdroj: | American Journal of Public Health and the Nations Health. 55:1212-1216 |
| ISSN: | 0002-9572 |
| DOI: | 10.2105/ajph.55.8.1212 |
| Popis: | THE care of the impoverished sick and disabled is an ancient concern of cities and towns. At times it has been considered an obligation, at times a duty, and at times a burden. We have come a long way from the inhumane but workable practice of abandoning the sick or expelling them from the group to die unattended and unmourned. Medical historians have traced society's attitudes toward the sick from the primitive concept of possession by evil spirits, through the early Semitic notion of atonement for sin, and the Greek idea of constitutional inferiority, to the Christian belief in brotherly responsibility in which relief of the suffering promoted the salvation of the helper. It is well to bear in mind that cities have shown a unique and enduring propensity to create health problems and then to treat the symptoms rather than deal with the causes. Mumford1 has given us a vivid description of the tenement houses of Imperial Rome, built by profiteering landloards "who learned how to divide old quarters into even narrower cells to accommodate even poorer artisans at a higher return per unit." The "insulae" as they were called were overcrowded, lacking even rudimentary sanitary facilities, piled story on story without adequate ventilation, or means of egress in case of fire, and so flimsily constructed that Juvenal remarked "they shook with every gust of wind that blew." The ages that separated the slums of Imperial Rome from those of the industrial revolution seem to have taught no lasting lessons. Chadwick's Report of 1842 to the Poor Law Commission on the sanitary condition of the working population, Villerme's 1840 "Survey of the Physical and Moral Condition of Workers Employed in Cotton, Wool and Silk Factories," and Shattuck's Report of 1850 were noteworthy attempts to awaken the concern of society for the health of all the people.2 In 1848 Griscom published his report on "The Sanitary Condition of the Laboring Population of New York," in which he said3: "The system of tenantage to which large numbers of the poor are subject, I think, must be regarded as one of the principal causes of the helpless and noisome manner in which they live. The basis of the evils is the subjection of the tenantry to the merciless inflictions and extortions of the sub-landlord. A house, or a row, or a court of houses is hired by some person of the owner, on a lease of several years, for a sum which yields a fair interest on the cost. The owner is then re |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|