Care of the poor revisited.

In a keynote address before the AHA Conference on Maintaining Services to the Poor, the author expressed his personal concerns and conclusions about what is happening on the "care of the poor" front in this country. This article highlights those concerns, among them: the preemption of concern for equity in the delivery of health care services by other national priorities; the disinclination of the states to assume the burden of caring for the poor forced on them by the Reagan administration; and the moral and financial dilemma this has placed on health care providers. The author concludes that the trend toward increasing the numbers of for-profit hospitals and preferred provider organizations will only worsen the situation, and that equalizing the charity care burden may best be accomplished in states with regulated systems. He concludes that the issue could reach a political explosion point in this election year.