> This is an interesting issue -- what incentive is there to help the mentally-disabled homeless from an economic perspective?
Well, there's quality of life aspects of not having them on the streets, etc.
But perhaps that's not direct enough for you -- so one way to save is on health care. Since hospitals must give emergency care to all patients regardless of finances, these types of cases often end up being very expensive due to frequent hospital stays.
Which leads to "putting out fires" syndrome ... preventative care is often more cost effective than emergency care, but people don't like the idea of giving free preventative care in a capitalist society. So they spend more on emergency care.
Which is another problem with treating healthcare as a business: the better you are at it, the less often your customers return.
Well, there's quality of life aspects of not having them on the streets, etc.
But perhaps that's not direct enough for you -- so one way to save is on health care. Since hospitals must give emergency care to all patients regardless of finances, these types of cases often end up being very expensive due to frequent hospital stays.
There are plenty of articles about that point, here's one: http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/338/24/1734