IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v64y2007i7p1463-1474.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Health care for the poor--An exploration of primary-care physicians' perceptions of poor patients and of their helping behaviors

Author

Listed:
  • Monnickendam, Menachem
  • Monnickendam, Shlomo M.
  • Katz, Chana
  • Katan, Joseph

Abstract

This paper explores the ways in which primary-care physicians in Israel perceive and help poor patients. Our findings are based on a qualitative study that utilized a focus group and in-depth interviews with 16 primary-care physicians who qualified both in Israel and in the former Soviet Union, and who work in community clinics one Health Maintenance Organization serving poor populations of diverse cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds (immigrants from the former Soviet Union and from Ethiopia, Bedouin, ultra-orthodox Jews, the chronic poor, and the 'new' poor). It was found that the physicians presume causality between poverty and health, identify and distinguish between different types of poverty, and make associations based on the type of poverty and type of patient problem. Their thinking on poverty is patient-oriented rather than socially oriented. An analysis of these findings resulted in a conceptualization of five types of physician helping behavior: emotional and personal instrumental, reinforcing socially desirable behavior, preferential help and bending the rules, rights realization and working the system, and minimal community involvement. The components of this conceptual model depict and chart issues affecting the helping behavior of the primary-care physician, i.e., type of poverty, type of problem, administrative context and, particularly, physician attributes, such as gender and country where notable. Our findings reveal little social consciousness on the part of the physicians, and we conclude with remarks on the potential for change in this area.

Suggested Citation

  • Monnickendam, Menachem & Monnickendam, Shlomo M. & Katz, Chana & Katan, Joseph, 2007. "Health care for the poor--An exploration of primary-care physicians' perceptions of poor patients and of their helping behaviors," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(7), pages 1463-1474, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:7:p:1463-1474
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(06)00616-2
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gross, Revital & Harrison, Michael, 2001. "Implementing managed competition in Israel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 52(8), pages 1219-1231, April.
    2. Fredrik Andersson & Carl Hampus Lyttkens, 1999. "Preferences for equity in health behind a veil of ignorance," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 8(5), pages 369-378, August.
    3. Parizot, Isabelle & Chauvin, Pierre & Paugam, Serge, 2005. "The moral career of poor patients in free clinics," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 61(6), pages 1369-1380, September.
    4. Kawachi, Ichiro & Kennedy, Bruce P. & Gupta, Vanita & Prothrow-Stith, Deborah, 1999. "Women's status and the health of women and men: a view from the States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 21-32, January.
    5. Eli Berman, 2000. "Sect, Subsidy, and Sacrifice: An Economist's View of Ultra-Orthodox Jews," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 905-953.
    6. Remennick, Larissa I., 1999. "Preventive behavior among recent immigrants: Russian-speaking women and cancer screening in Israel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 48(11), pages 1669-1684, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Miki Malul, 2019. "Poverty and Social Policy: Perceptions Versus Reality," Poverty & Public Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(4), pages 291-301, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Robert MacCulloch & Silvia Pezzini, 2010. "The Roles of Freedom, Growth, and Religion in the Taste for Revolution," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 53(2), pages 329-358, May.
    2. Gilat Levy & Ronnie Razin, 2009. "Religious Organizations," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 544, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    3. Goldfarb, Yael & Neuman, Shoshana, 2020. "Enhancing Employability by Responding to Work Motives: Lessons from a Field Experiment among Israeli Ultra-Religious Women," IZA Discussion Papers 12921, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    4. Chaudhary, Latika & Rubin, Jared, 2011. "Reading, writing, and religion: Institutions and human capital formation," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 17-33, March.
    5. Anke Gerber & Andreas Nicklisch & Stefan Voigt, 2013. "Strategic Choices for Redistribution and the Veil of Ignorance: Theory and Experimental Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 4423, CESifo.
    6. Francesco Caselli & Wilbur John Coleman II, 2013. "On The Theory Of Ethnic Conflict," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 11, pages 161-192, January.
    7. Ran Abramitzky, 2008. "The Limits of Equality: Insights from the Israeli Kibbutz," Discussion Papers 07-048, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    8. Francisco Costa & Angelo Marcantonio & Rudi Rocha, 2023. "Stop Suffering! Economic Downturns and Pentecostal Upsurge," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 215-250.
    9. Grigoriadis, Theocharis, 2017. "Religion, administration & public goods: Experimental evidence from Russia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 42-60.
    10. Garance Genicot, 2022. "Tolerance and Compromise in Social Networks," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(1), pages 94-120.
    11. Alberto Alesina & Eliana La Ferrara, 2003. "Ethnic Diversity and Economic Performance," Harvard Institute of Economic Research Working Papers 2028, Harvard - Institute of Economic Research.
    12. Ruffle Bradley J. & Sosis Richard, 2007. "Does It Pay To Pray? Costly Ritual and Cooperation," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-37, March.
    13. Nobles, Jenna & Brown, Ryan & Catalano, Ralph, 2010. "National independence, women's political participation, and life expectancy in Norway," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1350-1357, May.
    14. Lecce, Giampaolo & Ogliari, Laura & Squicciarini, Mara P., 2021. "Birth and migration of scientists: Does religiosity matter? Evidence from 19th-century France," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 274-289.
    15. Cantoni, Davide & Yuchtman, Noam, 2013. "The political economy of educational content and development: Lessons from history," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 233-244.
    16. Peter P. Wakker, 2000. "Uncertainty aversion: a discussion of critical issues in health economics," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(3), pages 261-263, April.
    17. Makowsky, Michael, 2009. "Religious Extremism, Clubs, and Civil Liberties: A Model of Religious Populations," MPRA Paper 14358, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Bradley J. Ruffle & Richard H. Sosis, 2003. "Does It Pay To Pray? Evaluating the Economic Return to Religious Ritual," Experimental 0309002, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Chaudhary, Latika & Rubin, Jared, 2016. "Religious identity and the provision of public goods: Evidence from the Indian Princely States," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 461-483.
    20. Becker, Sascha O. & Rubin, Jared & Woessmann, Ludger, 2020. "Religion in Economic History: A Survey," CEPR Discussion Papers 14894, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:64:y:2007:i:7:p:1463-1474. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.