Habin, Ronald I., December 1995 - QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR POOR PEOPLE Abstract Low income Americans do not have adequate access to medical care. A major reason, of course, is that given the predominance of expensive private care providers, most poor people cannot afford the luxury of preventive medical habit. By necessity, the daily struggle for food, clothing, and shelter must take precedence. Low income people generally encounter systemic obstacles when seeking quality health care from private medical practitioners, hospital clinics and emergency rooms, as well as from municipally controlled health department facilities. The purpose of this study is to try to improve the lives of low income Americans. When a given population is in good health, it has at least the chance to reach its highest human potential. This effort is primarily an exploration into an institutional means by which practical, humane health care policy may be nourished. That which is to be tested, is the research question: do nonprofit community health care centers offer quality health care to low income Americans? Anthropological theory supports our understanding of how macro and micro ecological influences permit the birth and development of just such an institution. A qualitative research approach is employed, as this seemed to the author, the most informative means by which to learn of the value of one community health care center to its environs. It is the customary job of the anthropologist when going on site, to observe, analyze as best one can, record data, events and feelings, and then formulate ideas regarding the field experience. This is ethnography. The ethnographic methodological approach is purposefully appropriate. In this endeavor, a variety of traditional investigative techniques are employed. As a result of this study, several themes have emerged. First, a particular community health care center provides quality health care for its client population. Second, due to the success of this institution, it is likely that other community health care centers can improve the health care outcomes of different vulnerable populations. Finally, recommendations are made concerning the place of community health centers in the American health care delivery mix.