Health Care And Housing Are Human Rights
  
2009 Federal Policy Priorities

The 2009 Policy Statements available on this website describe the positions of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council, representing providers of homeless health care and their clients throughout the nation.

These 13 Policy Statements explain our rationale for a variety of proposed policy changes that would hasten the end of mass homelessness in America and alleviate the deadly health consequences of homelessness.

As major reforms of the health care system are enacted this year, it is critical that access to appropriate health care of high quality is assured for homeless people, the poorest of our neighbors and among the sickest. The Policy Statements on Universal Health Care, Medicaid & SCHIP, Addiction & Mental Health, Child & Youth Heath, Disability Benefits, Institutional Discharge, Medical Respite Care, and the Federal Torts Claims Act will be of particular interest to those who are shaping a health care system that works for everyone.

The comprehensive, integrated approaches to care that Health Care for the Homeless projects have pioneered and demonstrated to be effective provide a strong model for all primary and behavioral health care. Increasingly, we to look to medical respite care and permanent supportive housing as health care interventions that are necessary in our time.

Our major priorities for 2009, described more fully in the Policy Statements, are:
Provide Universal Health Insurance with a Single Payer Financing Mechanism
  • Co-sponsor and pass H.R. 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act
  • Co-sponsor and enact S. 703, the American Health Security Act of 2009
Support the growth of the Consolidated Health Center Program Assure timely access to appropriate health care for people who are homeless.
Include in any health reform measure that is introduced or passed:
  • An end to the two-year waiting period between eligibility for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) eligibility and enrollment in Medicare
  • A Federal funding mechanism for Medical Respite Care— short-term acute and subacute medical care in residential settings for homeless people who are not ill enough to be in a hospital
Capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund
  • Support President Obama’s proposal to Appropriate $1B to capitalize the National Housing Trust Fund
  • Identify additional dedicated sources of funding for trust fund that will generate the necessary revenue to produce or preserve 1.5 million homes over the next 10 years
For talking points to use in conversations with elected officials, click here