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Health Reform and the Safety Net: Big Opportunities; Major Risks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Bruce Siegel ,
Marsha Regenstein  and
Peter Shin
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Extract

Millions of Americans are dependent on what is often called the “safety net.” These loosely-organized networks of health and social service providers serve the many Americans who are uninsured, dependent on public coverage, or for a variety of reasons unable to access other private systems of care. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, America’s Health Care Safety Net: Intact but Endangered, called attention to both the fragility and the resilience of this health care safety net. The IOM report underscored the critical importance of the safety net to the health and well-being of millions of individuals and called for efforts to strengthen it and improve the nation’s ability to monitor its viability. Given this central role, any health care reform efforts need to be fully informed by an understanding of what the safety net includes, how it is financed, and how it is responding to a series of challenges it now faces.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , Fall 2004 , pp. 426 - 432
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2004

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