Article content

Some Canadian doctors are expanding medicine’s frontiers in an effort to address the health gap between rich and poor.

Toronto family physician Dr. Gary Bloch, frustrated by his inability to improve the health of his low-income patients through conventional medicine, has begun to “treat” their most pernicious problem: poverty.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Toronto doctor “prescribes” income to poor patients Back to video

Poverty alone, he says, has more impact on the health of low-income people than smoking, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, salt or soda pop.

“The traditional medical model says trying to improve someone’s social situation is not a doctor’s role,” he says. “But the traditional medical model also says we have to look at the evidence and think creatively and broadly about how we approach our patients’ health.”

His simple prescription for poverty? More money. Bloch helps low-income patients in inner-city Toronto fill out applications for welfare and disability support, and educates them about the money they could realize by filing income tax returns. He directs them to free tax clinics.