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In the United States, concern about breast cancer has generated policies and programs aimed at increasing screening mammography and treatment access for the uninsured and underinsured. Oriented toward the importance of early detection and the state's responsibility to ensure health care access to its citizens, these policies and programs reflect and reinforce a moral economy of disease management that shapes the ethical behavior of patients, providers, and advocates. In contrast, the moral economy of market-based health care generates norms and assumptions about individual responsibility for health and limits expectations of the state in providing access to health care. Using breast cancer care for structurally vulnerable women as a focal point, this dissertation examines the social effects of intersecting moral economies of breast cancer management and market-based health care. It describes the relationships between public policies, social and economic marginalization, and gaps in health care access. Based on 18 months of ethnographic field work in Southern Arizona, I report findings from interviews with physicians, nurses, advocates, clinic office staff, and community health workers; from recurring discussions with women undergoing treatment for breast cancer; and from participant-observation in cancer-focused events and activities. This dissertation explores how policies that extend low-cost or free health care to broad populations also reproduce social exclusion and complicate what it means to be uninsured in America. I describe how everyday practices of health care, including determinations of eligibility for public insurance, reflect and reinforce social inequities based on citizenship status, gender, and occupational status. I conclude that the organization of cancer care for structurally vulnerable women effectively directs the focus away from the state's responsibility to provide health care access and instead privatizes that responsibility so that it resides with structurally vulnerable clinics and non-licensed health care staff. Furthermore, a charity approach to managing cancer care for unauthorized U.S. residents diverts public responsibility for their social exclusion to private entities. Finally, the findings of this dissertation contribute to debates about health reform efforts, such as the Affordable Care Act, by outlining the relationship between moral worth and government entitlements.

After the forced sterilizations of low-income and minority women were exposed in the 1970’s, new Medicaid policies were put into place in order to protect vulnerable populations. The revised policy included a mandatory consent form and a waiting period of 30 days between consent and procedure, as well as a presentation of the form at time of procedure. Although these policies were enacted to protect vulnerable populations, research has shown they are ineffective and act as barrier to women receiving the post-partum tubal sterilization that they desire. The policy has been shown to have a disproportionate detrimental impact on minority populations, and it has created a two-tiered health care system in terms of sterilization. The unfulfilled requests lead to many inadvertent consequences, including higher rates of unintended pregnancies, abortions, loss of self-efficacy, and higher costs for the Medicaid system. In order to ensure equitable treatment of Medicaid patients in regards to tubal sterilization, the 30-day waiting period should be rescinded. Additionally, to confirm that patients are fully knowledgeable of the implications of the tubal sterilization, the form and any ensuing consent should be rewritten to meet literacy standards for the target demographic. This analysis will include a history of the issue, an examination of relevant research, a policy analysis and recommendations to enhance healthcare equity.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 131-137).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2002. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-78). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. [55]-60).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, December 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.