ABSTRACT
This chapter examines features of existing discretionarily funded federal housing assistance programs and their outcomes to suggest how one federal health program—Medicaid—might be altered if program features from discretionarily funded programs were applied to it in the 21st century. It focuses on the implications for Black Americans of these changes. The chapter briefly describes the federal role in the markets for housing and health-care services and the resulting outcomes for Black Americans. It discusses selected design features of discretionarily funded federal housing assistance programs and speculates how these features might transform the Medicaid program and the assistance received by African Americans there from. The federal government intervenes in the markets for health-care services to fund biomedical research, to fund services, to construct facilities, and to train researchers and providers. The block grant mechanism to distribute funds and determine the nature of housing assistance challenges Black Americans to take steps to insure that their interests are reflected in the application.
