Interplay Across Poverty, Health, & Law

The United States has an extensive health care industry and infrastructure, yet people living in poverty tend to be sicker and have more disabilities than their wealthier counterparts. The poor have less access to health care. Fewer health care providers are willing to provide low-cost care.

A growing contingent of health care and legal professionals – bolstered by the Affordable Care Act's attention to patient-centered care – are committed to remedying these health disparities through a unique approach to health care: the medical-legal partnership. Using the MLP approach, hospitals and health centers embed public interest attorneys into their healthcare teams to tackle the range of health issues for vulnerable people and communities that have a legal problem at their core, whether it is unsafe housing, food insecurity, or a lack of access to public benefits.

Led by national pioneers in the medical-legal partnership field, this course will introduce attorneys to the concept of social determinants of health, linking them to prevalent health challenges, and describing legal interventions that can improve individual and population health. The course outlines fundamentals of medical-legal partnership practice, essential strategies to bridge between health and legal settings, common barriers to care for low-income individuals, and advocacy strategies used by MLPs to improve access to health-promoting public programs and services. 

Learning Objectives:

I.     Learn about health disparities and their origins in poverty and social determinants

II.    Understand how to work collaboratively with healthcare partners to address social determinants jointly

III.   Recognize the legal barriers to health and well-being for low-income individuals and the legal solutions

IV.   Gain a basic understanding of three domains where law and health intersect for vulnerable patient-clients, including 1. Accessing behavioral health services; 2. Accessing housing and shelter; and 3. Accessing basic public benefits