Health Care Off the Books

"Health Care Off the Books is an original and urgently needed study of how the most disadvantaged Americans seek access to health care. This unusually detailed account gives voice to both patients and doctors and offers insights into the difficult choices medical professionals must make when faced with the complex nature of social support and isolation among low-income urban African Americans. She shows that the line between the formal and informal in health care is blurry, as people use whatever means are at their disposal to access the resources—from drugs to wheelchairs—that they desperately seek but cannot afford. By turns informative and devastating, Health Care Off the Books is an important work."—Mario Luis Small, Grafstein Family Professor of Sociology at Harvard University and author of Someone To Talk To: How Networks Matter in Practice

"Raudenbush breaks new ground by showing how low-income people, locked out of the formal health care system, are forced to turn to a shadow health care network for basic medical necessities. This gripping and beautifully written book is a must-read for anyone interested in poverty, health care, and the connections between them."—Judith A. Levine, author of Ain’t No Trust: How Bosses, Boyfriends, and Bureaucrats Fail Low-Income Mothers and Why It Matters

“Health Care Off the Books demonstrates how the creative strategies that people leverage to address a lack of resources, while perhaps helpful in the short run, can be deadly in the long run. This book is a scathing indictment of our refusal to see access to high-quality health care as a human right. It should be required reading for those interested in understanding the context and consequences of injuries of inequality.”—Celeste Watkins-Hayes, Professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University and author of Remaking a Life: How Women Living with HIV/AIDS Confront Inequality