| Health Care Off the Books: Poverty, Illness, and Strategies for Survival in Urban America Subjects: African Americans -- Medical care -- United States -- Case studies; Urban poor -- Medical care -- United States -- Case studies; Millions of low-income African Americans in the United States lack access to health care. How do they treat their health care problems? In Health Care Off the Books , Danielle T. Raudenbush provides an answer that challenges public perceptions and prior scholarly work. Informed by three and a half years of fieldwork in a public housing development, Raudenbush shows how residents who face obstacles to health care gain access to pharmaceutical drugs, medical equipment, physician reference manuals, and insurance cards by mobilizing social networks that include not only their neighbors but also local physicians. However, membership in these social networks is not universal, and some residents are forced to turn to a robust street market to obtain medicine. For others, health problems simply go untreated. Raudenbush Danielle T. : Danielle T. Raudenbush is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. |