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Describes the historical background of the development of social security programs providing medical care in Latin America. Topics discussed regarding medical care.

This article seeks to analyze the relationship between the distance that farm families reside from certain health personnel and facilities and (1) the incidence of bed illness at home among those families and (2) the use of such health resources. The analysis is based on information obtained on 1,947 persons, 15 to 64 years of age, in 858 farm-operator households. The data are from 10 counties of a 20-county sample used in a survey of morbidity in contrasting socio-economic areas in Missouri. Generally, it was found that persons who live at the greater distances from certain health personnel tend to have a lower physician-call rate and more days of bed illness than those relatively nearby. No clear-cut relationship between distance to hospital and incidence of bed illness at home was found. The findings have implications for the development of any public or private health programs and suggest consideration of distance as one of the factors in the location of health personnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]