Access to Health Care: Perspectives of African American Families with Chronically Ill Children

This article describes a vulnerable group, African American families with children who have a chronic illness (asthma). Primary caretakers explain how they view asthma and the strategies they developed for caring for their child. The article focuses on ethnographic data from seven families and their experiences of access to health care. These experiences fall into four categories: getting health care that is wanted, getting health care that is unwanted, not getting health care that is wanted, and not getting health care that is unwanted. Each category represents different implications for advocating for health care for this vulnerable population.