ABSTRACT
This chapter inquires how well the poor in New York City fared in obtaining medical care at the time that the nation took a major step forward in passing Medicare and Medicaid. The poor in New York City and elsewhere have never consisted predominantly of the elderly. The first and surely the most unequivocal fact summarizing the course of the last three decades is the vast increase in public expenditures for health care services to the residents of New York City and the American people at large. Some of the more serious shortfalls in the health care experience of many of the city's poor result from faults in the organization, management, staffing, and facilities of the Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) hospitals and clinics. The most vulnerable among the city's poor are the uninsured. Basically lacking any options about site of care, they must seek most of their medical care from HHC institutions.
