Accessibility of Healthcare and Mainstream Benefits for the Homeless Population

Quite frankly, our healthcare system and other mainstream benefit systems have been designed to meet the needs of those providing the services, and do not take into account the barriers that homeless individuals face to accessing these so called “mainstream” benefits. The average Canadian experiences easy accessibility with close to zero barriers and rarely stops to consider the extent to which the inaccessibility of a basic need, such as the health care system, can impact marginalized and homeless communities that encounter various barriers to accessing the education, workforce, healthcare system, etc.

Some of these barriers include lack of transportation or financial means, lack of identification or a permanent address for homeless individuals, or even lack of past experiences to enter the workforce - not surprisingly, the list goes on. Ironically, these poorly designed systems don’t just affect the homeless population, but also the system itself. The consequences of inaccessible health care includes delayed access to medical help, leading to worsened health outcomes and a rise in the need for emergency services. This results in an overloaded healthcare system and overwhelming hospital numbers as we have seen in the recent years, as with the pandemic. In addition, these outcomes are more expensive to the system than if the government was to focus on prevention, early detection and treatment and if the system was designed more effectively.

Many homeless individuals rely on walk-in clinics and emergency rooms for their health care, which is a very expensive means of obtaining treatment and are usually backlogged with long lines. In some cases, homeless individuals who also work full-time jobs, are forced to take a day off work to wait in these long lines that results in them losing a day of income and potentially not even being addressed appropriately. A potential solution to this is for shelters and homeless-serving agencies to assist by building health care treatment – through mobile clinics, street nurses or staff physicians into their overall service provision planning.

New research from “The Effect of Socioeconomic Status on Access to Primary Care: An Audit Study” shows that “within a universal health insurance system in which physician reimbursement is unaffected by patients’ socioeconomic status, people presenting themselves as having high socioeconomic status received preferential access to primary care over those presenting themselves as having low socioeconomic status [SES].” In this study, health care practitioners offices were phoned and presented with different scenarios related to economic and health status. Those presenting with a higher SES and lower health concerns were offered appointments more frequently than callers from a lower socioeconomic status who had chronic health issues. Overall, this research study and common themes shows that access is a systemic issue that must be addressed by governments at the provincial/territorial and national levels.

Works Cited

“How Can We Improve Healthcare Access for the Homeless?” How Can We Improve Healthcare Access for the Homeless? | The Homeless Hub,

www.homelesshub.ca/resource/how-can-we-improve-healthcare-access-homeless.

“‘Low-Barrier’ Is Not Good Enough Anymore: How the Alex Is Working toward Zero-Barrier Care.”

The Alex, 14 Feb. 2022, www.thealex.ca/zero-barrier-health-care/.