Private Hospitals Invest In The Health Benefits Of Housing

evening view of Sacramento's skyline
Sacramento Set photo by Jeff Turner is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Sacramento, California: affordable housing has become a healthcare matter.

In United States, where private enterprise holds sway in the healthcare system, it might be expected that a for-profit hospital would shy away from treating homelessness as a healthcare problem. But if that was once a certainty, it is now no longer the case.

Sacramento, California hospitals, as well as others around the U.S., must toe a profit line. It has forced them to evaluate the benefit of providing housing as a strategy to unclog the medical pipeline. To a growing number of healthcare corporations, contributing to housing for the homeless pays dividends. The housing helps people who are homeless first find, and then remain in, their homes instead of cycling in and out of hospitals over and over again at great cost.

Is it time for single-payer systems, usually administered by one or more layers of government, to consider broadening the scope of supports to the homeless?

Read more in The Mercury News:  Northern California hospital is housing the homeless: Will it make a difference?

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