Grateful for treatment, he jokes with the medical intern each morning. We both work as internists at a public hospital in the medical safety net, a loose term for institutions that disproportionately serve patients on Medicaid or without insurance. You could describe the safety net in another way, too, as a place that holds up a mirror to our nation. That the medical care the patient is receiving exceeds the cost of a year’s rent makes no practical difference. We needed to coin a phrase because so many of our patients die of the same thing.

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Persons: he’ll, He’d, He’s Locations: San Francisco