MEDICAID - House the Homeless?

Think  about it....  Being homeless is NOT healthy.  So why not use Medicaid money to solve this health issue?

"Should a federal health program pay to house L.A.’s homeless?" PBS NewsHour 12/12/2014

Excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Since the federal health care law expanded Medicaid in some states, about seven million low-income Americans have gained new health insurance.

But, in Los Angeles, health officials say that’s not enough and they want to try going further, using Medicaid dollars to pay for housing for the homeless.

Hari Sreenivasan has our report.

WOMAN:  I got appendicitis, OK?  Cirrhosis of the liver.

HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour):  Deborah Mullins blames most of her health problems on this block in downtown Los Angeles.  She has been living on the sidewalk here for the past 30 years.

MAN:  Do you know how many times she went to the hospital?  At least eight.  At least.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  Mullins’ health has gotten so bad that even the police have started worrying.

MAN:  As a matter of fact, no, that’s been this year, and we’re not even done yet.

HARI SREENIVASAN:  She’s exactly the kind of person Dr. Susan Partovi and her team from L.A.’s Department of Health Services have been trying to find recently.  They say they have an obviously cure for much of what ails the city’s chronically homeless, namely, housing.