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Reform and Its Discontents: Public Health in New York City During the Great Society

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 April 2009

James Colgrove
James Colgrove
Affiliation:
Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University
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Extract

The health-care system was one of the most visible and contentious battlegrounds on which the social conflicts of the 1960s unfolded. To an unprecedented extent, health status—especially the stark disadvantage in access and outcomes for racial and ethnic minorities and the poor—became an object of public and governmental concern during the Great Society era, as clinicians, community activists, politicians, and policymakers sought to create new models of medical care that were more equitable and efficient than those of the past. The social science theories that informed the ambitious programs of Lyndon Johnson's administration gave an imprimatur to the idea that illness was both cause and consequence of the “cycle of poverty.”

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Policy History , Volume 19 , Issue 1: Special Issue: New Perspectives on Public Health Policy , January 2007 , pp. 3 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA. 2007

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References

Notes

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75. Mary McLaughlin to Edward O'Rourke, 14 February 1968, NYCDOH, Box 142240, Folder: Ambulatory Care.

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77. McLaughlin, Kavaler, and Stiles, “Ghetto Medicine Program in New York City,” 2321–25; 2323.

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79. Edward O'Rourke to Werner Kamarsky, 8 November 1968, NYCDOH, Box 142240, Folder: Environmental Health Services.

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