DIVISIVE POLITICS IN THE UNITED STATES WILL INCREASINGLY DISRUPT PATIENT OUTCOMES AND HEALTHCARE DELIVERY IN VARIOUS REGIONS OF THE COUNTRY, WITH POLITICS SUPERSEDING SCIENCE FOR MANY AMERICANS IN A FRACTIOUS “RED VS. BLUE” DIVIDE. BUT GEN Z’S GROWING VOTING POWER MAY FINALLY SET HEALTHCARE FREE.
Legislating Life: Correlation Between Liberal* State-level Policy and Life Expectancy
Data: Montez, J. et. al. 2020, ‘US State Policies, Politics, and Life Expectancy,’ The Milbank Quarterly, 04 August
* Liberal was defined as expanding state power for economic regulation and redistribution or for protecting marginalized groups, or restricting state power for punishing deviant social behavior; conservative was defined as the opposite.
To meaningfully improve the health of Americans, new policies must target all of the drivers of health, including education, economic stability, neighborhoods and environments, social and community well-being, and historic inequities.
Steven Woolf, MD, MPH
Professor of family medicine and population health, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine