Milbank Memorial Fund Partners with Yale to Study Why It's So Hard to Connect Health to Social Factors
One of the goals of the Affordable Care Act is to focus more on population health. With millions more people insured, the assumption is that governments could devote more resources to efforts that target broader social determinants -- foundational ways to keep people healthy, such as stable housing, clean air and violence-free neighborhoods.
Three years after the launch of the federal law’s insurance exchanges, the rate of uninsured adults is lower than ever. But for the most part, state and local health departments haven’t quite figured out how to incorporate population health-focused programs into their overall efforts.
To try to find out why, a couple of Yale University researchers conducted a study with the Milbank Memorial Fund to learn what the challenges were in implementing a more social services-oriented approach within health departments and across communities. Erika Rogan and Elizabeth Bradley visited local governments across the country and held work sessions with decision-makers from different specialties and political ideologies...