Labor Pains: Childbearing Centers in a New Health Care System

Introduction

At this historic junction in the history of United States’ health care, when coverage for all is being proposed, critical questions need to be ad-dressed. Who will provide this health care? How will people get access?Will it be high quality? These questions are of especially great importance to the inner-city communities of this country, where few health care facilities and a severe shortage of health care providers exist. The answer to these problems lies in building and funding primary health care centers, based in and responsive to the communities they serve. A mix of advanced level nurse-practitioners, midlevel providers, and doctors should serve on the front line at these centers, with large hospital complexes available to provide specialty resources if needed.