By NextBestFitLet health budgets pay for housing and food
Allow the health system to pay for housing support, medically tailored meals, and rides.
Lets health budgets pay for housing and food in pilots.
To review: Health systems aren't housing experts; start as pilots.
Review ledgerHow this path connects
This path
Let health budgets pay for housing and food
Concrete changes if chosen
What would actually have to change in law, agencies, payment rules, or systems.
- Allow health budgets to pay for housing support, meals, and rides
Effects
Each effect has its own page: the evidence, the case that it is or isn't a real cost, and whom it affects.
What it fixes
- Housing, food, and transportation drive health, but health care isn't designed for them
Health-system payments for housing support, medically tailored meals, and rides target drivers of illness and can pay for themselves in some cases.
What it creates or worsens
- Leaves funding vulnerable or inflexible
Paying for housing support, meals, and rides stretches health budgets.
- Requires workers to change roles or skills
Paying for housing support asks health systems to work in an area where they lack housing expertise.
Who's affected
Who gains
- Low- and middle-income households
- Housing, food, and transportation drive health, but health care isn't designed for them: Health systems lack tools and funding to address social conditions shaping their health.
- People experiencing homelessness
- Housing, food, and transportation drive health, but health care isn't designed for them: Health systems lack tools and funding to address social conditions shaping their health.
Who loses
- Taxpayers and public budgets
- Leaves funding vulnerable or inflexible: Paying for housing support, meals, and rides stretches health budgets.
Where it has been tried
- North Carolina Healthy Opportunities: A UNC evaluation of North Carolina’s Healthy Opportunities Pilots found that covering food and housing for over 31,000 Medicaid enrollees reduced healthcare spending by an average of $164 per person per month (2022–2024).