ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes health care for older blacks to assess the relative importance of class and race factors. An analysis of differences that draws solely on the cultural practices and values of black elderly fails to explore the influences of structural forces in society, such as the effect of class and race on the health and health care of older blacks. The patterns of institutional practices based on race in hospitals and nursing homes, however, suggests that a class-based approach alone will not eliminate differences in the health care provided to older blacks. The largest public programs established in the 1960s generally assumed that the problems of blacks could be remedied at the individual level. Most antipoverty programs focused on measures such as increasing the educational levels of individuals under the assumption that individual characteristics were the root cause of poverty.
