10 Ways to Better Understand How Shifting State Policy Contexts Affect Americans’ Health

Jennifer Karas Montez

Milbank Quarterly, April 2024

Jennifer Karas Montez

Sociology Department

Aging Studies Institute

Center for Aging and Policy Studies

Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and Population Health

Federal

State & Local

U.S. Health Policy

United States

Milbank Quarterly

Jennifer Karas Montez

The impact of U.S. state policies on population health is increasingly evident. States’ earned income tax credits, cigarette sales taxes, right to work laws, Medicaid expansion, firearm safety, and paid family leave are just a few examples of specific policies that affect population health. Better understanding these effects has become urgent as states continually grow farther apart on both their policies and their population’s health.

Although research has started to connect the dots between the divergence in states’ policies and their populations’ health, it has become clear that better understanding the connections requires new approaches and greater attention to certain issues. I offer here 10 ways to accelerate research on the role that the seismic shifts in states’ policy contexts may have played in the troubling trends and growing disparities in Americans’ health.

The list is informed by years of collaborative research on the role of state policy contexts on population health, thoughtful questions from academic and nonacademic audiences following presentations of that research, and insightful critiques from journal reviewers.