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For All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care ReformFor All the People: A Century of Citizen Action in Health Care Reform

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Communities & Health Care

Everyone needs access to health care. This fundamental need has mobilized ordinary citizens to take extraordinary actions. Workers and community residents organized health collectives and clinics to secure their access to health care. Explore these photographs and learn about several health centers and cooperatives, created by and for the people, during the last century.

<a href='onlineactivities01.html'>1. “Mother’s club”, New York, 1930s</a><p><strong>A nurse from the Henry Street Settlement with a parent education class known as a “mother’s club,” New York, 1930s</strong><br />Courtesy National Library of Medicine</p> <hr /> <p>The poor immigrant communities in urban industrial neighborhoods had little access to health professionals despite their great need for care. Since Henry Street was founded earlier, some communities were able to improve their living conditions and health through social and health services from settlement houses, such as the Henry Street Settlement in New York City. For example, neighborhood women organized in mother’s clubs to share experiences and hear advice from professional nurses of the Henry Street Visiting Nurses Service.</p> <a href='onlineactivities07.html'>7. Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center, CA, 1975</a><p><strong>Betty Szudy, Dido Hasper, Wendi Jones, Judy Rutherford and Janice Turrini (left to right) were among several women who helped launch the Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center in California, 1975</strong><br />Courtesy Feminist Women’s Health Center<hr />Women’s rights activists organized health clinics to provide women-centered health education, reproductive services, natural childbirth, and all types of medical care. The Chico Feminist Women’s Health Center in California began by offering educational materials and instruction in self-examination for women, and later became a full-service medical clinic.</p> <a href='onlineactivities06.html'>6. National Farm Workers Service Center Health Clinic, Calexico, CA, 1973</a><p><strong>Patients in the waiting room of the National Farm Workers Service Center’s health clinic, decorated with posters of union leader Cesar Chavez and revolutionary leader Emiliano Zapata, Calexico, CA, 1973</strong><br />Courtesy Walter P. Reuther Library, Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs, Wayne State University, Photographer Glenn Pearcy</p><hr /><p>Farm workers’ organizations saw health care as central to peoples’ struggle for dignity and better conditions for both work and home life. Affiliates of the United Farm Workers of America opened numerous clinics for migrant agricultural workers and their families in the 1960s and 1970s.</p> <a href='onlineactivities05.html'>5. Delta Health Center, Mound Bayou, MS, 1968</a><p><strong>Nurses meeting at the Delta Health Center, a community-controlled clinic in Mound Bayou, MS, 1968.</strong><br />Courtesy Daniel Bernstein/Jack Geiger</p><hr /><p>Minority and low-income Americans have organized to bring quality health care to their communities for over a century. Responding to neglect from government and private providers, community members have created their own public health campaigns, hospitals, clinics, and health centers. The Delta Health Center, organized by physicians and nurses from the Medical Committee for Human Rights, was one of the first community-controlled health clinics in the United States.</p> <a href='onlineactivities04.html'>4. Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA, 1947</a><p><strong>Nurse Elise Cook and Dr. William MacColl show off the first babies born at Group Health Cooperative in Seattle, WA, 1947</strong><br />Courtesy Group Health Cooperative</p><hr /><p>After federal involvement in medical cooperatives ended in the 1940s, many communities formed private non-profit health associations, often based on the principle of pre-paid group insurance. Health plans like the Group Health Cooperative of Seattle, Washington, emphasized promoting wellness as much as treating illness.</p> <a href='onlineactivities03.html'>3. Union Health Center, New York, 1943</a><p><strong>A nurse at the Union Health Center draws blood from a patient, New York, 1943</strong><br />Courtesy Kheel Center, Cornell University</p><hr /><p>Industrial workers toiled in dangerous and unhealthy conditions, making health their major concern. In the absence of universal health protection, some labor unions developed worker-run medical facilities, including hospitals and clinics. The garment workers’ Union Health Center provided care to union members beginning in 1914 and is still thriving today.</p> <a href='onlineactivities02.html'>2. Families at Sabine Farms, Marshall, TX, 1939</a><p><strong>Families at Sabine Farms, a New Deal resettlement community for displaced tenant farmers near Marshall, TX, pooled their resources to employ a physician, Dr. Lee, 1939</strong><br />Courtesy Library of Congress</p><hr /><p>There were great shortages of doctors, nurses, and hospitals in rural areas of America, creating a need for communities to secure access to health care collectively. During the Great Depression, the government encouraged the creation of medical cooperatives in rural areas. The resettlement community at Sabine Farms was one example of a medial cooperative; families drew their resources together to hire a physician to tend to the sick.</p>

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