ABSTRACT
Illness is a great leveler of what might otherwise be distinguished, able-bodied, and mentally healthy individuals in the everyday life of society. Possession of the economic means to meet the costs of health care is crucial to individual and group adaptation to illness. This chapter focuses on the influence of economic factors on doctor-patient relationships. It describes the concrete illustrations of the bearing of economic structures, primary groups, and individual motivation in the organization of help-seeking behavior. The chapter also focuses on physician attitudes toward the poor and the consequences of their attitudes for health behavior. Health behavior is comprised of a variety of acts, including, but not limited to, those aimed at securing regular medical check-ups to sustain health and/or to prevent illness from occurring. Help seeking can be an extension of either illness or health behavior that is manifest in response to a real or anticipated disorder for which intervention is needed.
