title: Health care reform, managed competition, and the urban medically underserved: some preliminary questions about structure, equity, and quality care.
abstract: The purpose of this article is to provide some preliminary observations and discussion on several questions relating to managed competition in health and the urban medically underserved. The shift to managed competition in health care financing and delivery from an unmanaged fee-for-service system raises several critical transitional questions for those groups in the urban arena that have been traditionally medically underserved. After an overview discussion of cost dynamics in the American health care system and selected characteristics of the health care system and the urban medically underserved, the article explores several critical transitional questions relating to structure, equity and quality care considerations in managed competition and the urban medically underserved.
authors.affiliation: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, USA.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Rice
mesh_terms: D003710:Demography; D017048:Health Care Costs; D015276:Health Care Rationing / Q000191:economics / Q000592:standards; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics*; D006291:Health Policy; D006297:Health Services Accessibility; D006801:Humans; D018854:Managed Competition / Q000191:economics*; D008507:Medically Underserved Area; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012935:Social Justice; D014481:United States; D019037:Urban Health Services / Q000191:economics* / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data