Philadelphia Health Solutions

There are more than 1 and a half million people living and working in the greater Philadelphia area. It's an ethnically diverse region with approximately half white and half mixed (black, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, etc). About one third of Philadelphians have children under 18. (Philly demographics)

These are fairly average statistics for North Eastern cities with an economic historical base of manufacturing and trade. Although the economy has hit most cities with manufacturing and technology sectors, the lower income groups of Phily have taken a particularly severe hit since 2010. This has affected the healthcare delivery for lower and middle class families and individuals especially those with children under the ages of 10.

Some of the public health centers, neighborhood health clinics for example, have been losing government funding since 2000, naturally this has led to a decline in preventive care for adults and particularly pregnant women. The College of Physicians in Philadelphia has attempted to ease some of this lose in preventive health care by providing online resources such as Philly Health Info. Also the Philadelphia City Public Health Department provides resources online through http://www.phila.gov/health/.

There are some cities that have fared more favorably during the recession than Philadelphia, and their public and preventive health delivery networks have been augmented with private health delivery, in some cases alternative health such as chiropractic in San Diego and acupuncture in Portland Oregon. Some other cities that have strived to offer favorable business environments for private health systems are Houston, Milwaukee, San Francisco and Cleveland.