Teaching Hospitals and the Urban Poor

Academic health centers (AHCs) have played a key role in propelling the United States to world leadership in technological advances in medicine. At the same time, however, many of these urban-based hospitals have largely ignored the medical care of their poor neighbors. Now one of the leading experts in American health policy and economics ponders whether current and proposed changes in the financing and delivery of medical care will result in a realignment between AHCs and the poor.

Basing ...