While Medicaid is the primary way to cover the poor, charity care used to be a far simpler proposition for doctors, said David S. Jones, the A. Bernard Ackerman professor of the culture of medicine at Harvard University. In the era before modern surgery and antibiotics, care for all but the very elite was provided by unschooled healers such as midwives, "bone-setters," and apothecaries. Their fees were low, and many would barter their services for crops or food. "The families would give what they could. Sometimes it was a chicken, sometimes it was a roll of cloth. Sometimes they would show up months later, when their fortunes had changed, and say, 'Here's a turkey. Thanks for taking care of us,' " Jones said.
