The right to health care--gains and gaps.

The impact on health services of the individual rights and collective embodied in the U. S. Constitution is examined in the areas of protection, development of health resources, personal health, and social financing of health care costs. Patterns of delivery of care have shifted from predominantly individualistic ambulatory care to practice increasingly associated with the prepayment of costs and the of community health centers. Problems remain in the need for integration of medical and social services in institutions and in the, more comprehensive community health centers not restricted to the, and quality control measures to regulate health maintenance. The role of the law in advances in health care and the of the American Public Health Association are also discussed. (KIE abstract)