The U.S. Experiment in Social Medicine - (Contemporary Community Health) by Alice Sardell (Paperback)

About the Book

The first political history of the Community Health Center Program, the only federal experiment in social medicine. Sardell views the inherent political struggles, and the survival of the program on the condition that it only serve the poor.

Book Synopsis

This book represents the first political history of the federal government's only experiment in social medicine. Alice Sardell examines the Neighborhood, or Community Health Center Program (NHC/CHC) from its origins in 1965 as part of Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty campaign up until 1986. The program embodied concepts of social medicine, community development, and consumer involvement in health policy decision-making. Sardell views the NHC experiment in the context of a series of political struggles, beginning in the 1890s, over the boundaries of public and private medicine, and demonstrates that these health centers so challenged mainstream medicine that they could only be funded as a program limited to the poor.

Review Quotes

An excellent account of how a policy network that included buraucratic and congressional actors initiated and, with the gradual development of supportive interest group actors, was able to sustain the Neighborhood Community Health Center Program.-- "Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law"

This book should be read by all politicians, bureaucrats, and health care professionals, as well as any others seriously concerned about the equitable delivery of medical and health care.-- "John C. Hartnett, Science Books & Films"

About the Author

Alice Sardell is associate professor of urban studies at Queens College, City University of New York.