The Delivery of Ambulatory Care to the Poor: A Literature Review

The authors review the literature on the delivery of ambulatory care to the urban poor by isolating the crucial variables affecting the supply and demand for such services and organizing the literature around these concepts. The state of health of the poor, perception of health, and cost of care are examined as factors influencing demand. Then the consequences of various policies designed to intervene in the market are considered. Since little systematic date have been collected on the costs and benefits of these programs, the authors conclude by discussing an alternative to the current system of delivering ambulatory care to the poor and raise several issues for future research.