With overcrowded homes, infections spread, and basic hygiene is more difficult to maintain. Damp, cold homes also aggravate infectious diseases and allergies. Secondly, when families in poverty need medical care, some are in the anguishing position of having to choose between spending money on food and medical costs. With no access to a telephone there is a barrier to communicating with health professionals, and life threatening delays may occur with medical emergencies. With no car, access even to routine health care may be difficult.
Medical care is relatively more costly now than in the previous decade.
For the poorest families the gain of free visits for under 6 year olds is more than offset by the deterioration in their relative incomes. The costs of doctor visits for children and young people over six, and adults, remains high, and there are part charges on medications. The boundaries for high user cards have changed to exclude some previously eligible individuals. When a child is sick, others in their overcrowded homes are more likely to be sick. Sick parents struggling to provide food and shelter find it difficult to take children for immunisations and well child checks.