Health Care for the “Truly Needy”: Nineteenth-Century Origins of the Concept

Notions of the “truly needy,” or those “worthy” of publicly supported care, are rooted in nineteenth-century American history. Major economic and social dislocations prompted reorganized and restrictive approaches to earlier forms of provision for the poor. Current policy debates about the needy hearken back to other troubled times.

Author(s): David Rosner

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Volume 60, Issue 3 (pages 355–385)
Published in 1982