For continuity of health care and protection, migrants need access to health services in every county where they live and work temporarily. Because geographic coverage by project services is still far from complete, a total of 750,000 migrants had no access to personal health care provided through projects in 1966. The remainder had ready access to personal health services for only part of the year.

Only one out of three counties with migrants offered grant-assisted personal health care geared to the special needs of migrants during 1966. Only six out of 10 counties offered protection of their living and working environment through sanitation services with grant assistance. Lack of continuity of health care will remain a problem as long as many communities have no place to which a migrant can turn and expect to find needed health care.

Health Service Deficiencies

Personal health services rendered by projects to migrants compared with national utilization rates

To gain health status comparable to the national average, migrants must be able to obtain health care at at least the levels achieved by the general population. Medical and dental visits by the 250,000 migrants present in project areas for part of 1966 averaged far below the national average. Furthermore, the acute needs of migrants in project areas suggest that they obtained relatively little care elsewhere. The low migrant rates reflect the intermittent and temporary nature of migrants' access to projects and their services, the newness of some projects just getting underway in 1966 and the typical local shortage of project physicians and dentists to meet more than emergency needs. Although the general shortage of health manpower was a contributing factor, project services might have been expanded in many localities if additional funds had been available.