Changes in women's preferences for the racial composition of medical facilities, 1969 to 1974

Abstract

We can say that the creation of all black medical care facilities for blacks had little support among black women in 1969-70, and less in 1973-74. If we can accept the questionnaire responses, all black facilities might have been a deterrent rather than a facilitator of service use. Integrated medical care facilities best meet the expressed preferences of black women. In 1969-70, integrated medical care facilities might have been a deterrent to many white women, especially in the South, especially among the less educated women toward whom the subsidy program was directed, and especially where black doctors are a part of the integration. By 1973-74, integrated facilities violated the preferences of fewer white women than four years earlier, largely because of the large number of 'do not care' responses. But the reservation of southern white women about black doctors remained strong.