Dr. Jack Geiger looks back on the history of America’s FQHCs
“And this administration to day here and declares unconditional war on poverty in America.” Lyndon Johnson
I think it was necessary because we had visible social upheaval, riots, assassinations. In fact, we already were two nations separate and unequal along the chasm of race and ethnicity.
When the war on poverty, Medicare Medicaid, started we had a national poverty level of 22%. Ten years later it was 11%.
That’s without precedent.
It has crept up back with the abandonment of those kinds of interventions and policies that there’s something better
than 14%.
What is not reflected in that numbers something community health centers, particularly in urban areas know very well, which is that we have created very urban concentrations of poverty which have developed pathologies all of their own. And we’re going to have to find ways to unpack those concentrations of poverty and the Supreme Court ruling to strengthen fair housing laws and their implementation will help.