Poverty in the United States as defined by federal standards. A report of the Bureau of Research and Planning, California Medical Association.

The subject of this Socio-Economic Report is of tremendous importance to the medical profession because physicians should be aware that future programs for the expansion of health care services will be based and, in fact, are being based upon information which this Report contains. The relationship between poverty and accessibility of health care services is therefore quite direct. So, too, will be the impact upon the profession and the organization of medical practice. The 1966 amendments to the Poverty Act are concerned with neighborhood health centers and a vast array of other programs which will touch every physician and every community which can be identified by the standards indicated in this Report as low income, poor, or near poor. For this reason the California Medical Association Committee on Welfare Medical Programs, among several others concerned with aspects of this problem, is trying to alert every county medical society of developments as well as of the responsibilities they should assume in working with the Office of Economic Opportunity and other community organizations in providing guidance and leadership in structuring programs compatible with the interests of the public and the health care professions. This Report on poverty presents a current and prospective view of the problems and issues to be faced. Unless physicians see the relationship and join in a community effort to aid in resolving an issue which underlies public policy, we shall be looking back five or ten years from now to point out that we failed to take advantage of opportunities to assist in the development of a rational system of medical care for low-income groups. Individual physicians, component medical societies on a grass-roots level and CMA as a state organization should all be concerned with and aware of the facts.