Richard E. Nelson (
Ann Elizabeth Montgomery is an investigator at the Birmingham VA Medical Center and an assistant professor in the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, in Birmingham, Alabama.
Health Aff (Millwood). 2021 May;40(5):820-828. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.01796.
Compared with housed people, those experiencing homelessness have longer and more expensive inpatient stays as well as more frequent emergency department visits. Efforts to provide stable housing situations for people experiencing homelessness could reduce health care costs. Through the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, the Department of Veterans Affairs partners with community organizations to provide temporary financial assistance to veterans who are currently homeless or at imminent risk of becoming homeless. We examined the impact of temporary financial assistance on health care costs for veterans in the Supportive Services for Veteran Families program and found that, on average, people receiving the assistance incurred $352 lower health care costs per quarter than those who did not receive the assistance. These results can inform national policy debates regarding the proper solution to housing instability.
与有住房的人相比，无家可归者的住院时间更长、费用更高，急诊就诊也更频繁。为无家可归者提供稳定的住房环境的努力可能会降低医疗保健成本。退伍军人事务部通过退伍军人家庭支持服务计划与社区组织合作，为目前无家可归或即将无家可归的退伍军人提供临时经济援助。我们研究了退伍军人家庭支持服务计划中临时经济援助对退伍军人医疗保健费用的影响，发现平均而言，接受援助的人每季度的医疗保健费用比未接受援助的人低 352 美元。这些结果可以为有关解决住房不稳定问题的恰当方案的全国性政策辩论提供信息。
