Health Care Access and Use Among Adults Experiencing Homelessness

Health insurance alone is not enough to ensure access to care.

In a recent JAMA Health Forum paper, UCSF BHHI researchers found that most adults experiencing homelessness in California had health insurance — but many still could not get the care they needed.

• Key findings include:
• 83% had health insurance.
• 39% had not seen a health care provider outside the emergency department in the past year.
• Nearly 1 in 4 reported an unmet need for health care.
• Nearly 1 in 4 could not get needed medications in the past six months.
• Emergency care use was high: 39% had visited an emergency department and 22% had been hospitalized in the past six months.

The study found that people who were unsheltered, had difficulty with activities of daily living, or regularly used illicit substances faced greater barriers to care.

These findings can help policymakers, health systems, and service providers design care that better meets the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Read the Paper