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Health Care In The Inner City: Asking The Right Question, Sidney D. Watson

All Faculty Scholarship

MIAMI-June Kirchik, fifty-eight years old, discovered a large lump in her breast. When she went to a private hospital, she was denied treatment because she was indigent and her case was not considered an emergency. A public hospital performed a biopsy, which was positive, and gave her an appointment for treatment three weeks later. When Mrs. Kirchik arrived for treatment, however, the public hospital turned her away because she had not yet applied for Medicaid. Mrs. Kirchik tried another public hospital, but was turned away because she was not a resident of the hospital's service area. When Mrs. Kirchik's story …