Private health care insurers have steered clear of enrolling people who are homeless as plan members. Most of the health care for people who are homeless is paid for by government-funded medicare and medicaid. Developing a business model built around medicare and medicaid has generally been considered unfeasible, until now.
The article that follows discusses how Healthcare In Action has been able to build a sustainable business with medicare and medicaid as the foundation.
At the end of the article linked below there are words of caution from Jim Withers, a famous name in ‘Street Medicine:’
“I do worry about the corporatization of street medicine and capitalism invading what we’ve been building, largely as a social justice mission outside of the traditional healthcare system. But nobody owns the streets, and we have to figure out how to play nice together.”
In America, health care to the housed population is managed by the private sector. In Canada, it is managed by the public sector. Can the specialized health needs of people who are unhoused be delivered best by the private or the public sector? Or is it possible that a combination of both public and private (which worries Jim Withers) can deliver quality health care to people who are unhoused?
Read more in KFF Health News: A California Medical Group Treats Only Homeless Patients — And Makes Money Doing It
