Living on the streets of California is a deadly affair. The life expectancy of an unsheltered person is 50, according to national estimates, nearly 30 years less than that of the average Californian. As homelessness spirals out of control throughout the state, so too do deaths on the street, but it’s those whose lives are the most fragile who are least likely to get medical care.
Now, the state Medi-Cal agency is endeavoring to improve health care access for people experiencing homelessness. Through a series of incentives and regulatory changes, the Health Care Services Department is encouraging Medi-Cal insurers to fund and partner with organizations that bring primary care into encampments.
Physician’s assistant Brett Feldman asks a man in his encampment if he has seen a patient along Skid Row on Nov. 18, 2022. The patient was likely pushed out of the area as the Los Angeles sanitation department cleared the unhoused to clean the street near Skid Row.
Unhoused patient Danny Doran sits in the waiting area for the mobile clinic parked in Whittier Narrows Park on Nov. 17, 2022. Doran is being checked up after being assaulted near his encampment just a few days before.
Physician’s assistant Brett Feldman checks his patient, Carla Bolen’s, blood pressure while in her encampment at the Figueroa St. Viaduct above Highway 110 in Elysian Valley Park in Los Angeles on Nov. 18, 2022.
Dr. Kyle Patton prescribes Amber Schmitt with medication to treat the wound on her leg in the back of his truck on Sept. 19, 2022.
