@article{191744e0d7f74f829ca143e5de4bedfa,
title = "US State Policy Contexts and Population Health",
abstract = "Policy Points This Perspective connects the dots between the polarization in US states{\textquoteright} policy contexts and the divergence in population health across states. Key interlocking forces that fueled this polarization are the political investments of wealthy individuals and organizations and the nationalization of US political parties. Key policy priorities for the next decade include ensuring all Americans have opportunities for economic security, deterring behaviors that kill or injure hundreds of thousands of Americans each year, and protecting voting rights and democratic functioning.",
author = "Montez, {Jennifer Karas} and Grumbach, {Jacob M.}",
note = "Funding Information: : This work was supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (grant R01AG055481). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Funding/Support Funding Information: A formidable obstacle to addressing this omission is the challenge of collecting disparate sources of data on the multifaceted and sometimes subterranean political activities of corporations and interest groups that influence state policies, and ultimately health outcomes. This would be a major undertaking. Although there are various data sources that cover transparent “hard money” campaign contributions and lobbying spending (e.g., the Center for Responsive Politics), many important political tactics of corporations and the wealthy—including organization building, media influence, the subsidization of “astroturf” movements, and many other strategies—require creative data collection and merging. Developing such a data resource would require significant funding, ingenuity, and multiple stakeholders. It would be difficult but not insurmountable. The scientific community has undertaken other daunting data collection efforts (e.g., collecting blood samples from thousands of people in national data sets like the Health and Retirement Study) and could marshal its ingenuity to do the same here. This effort will require sustained funding from sources such as the National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. We implore funders to facilitate and support the creation of this data and its linkage with individual‐level survey data sets. In sum, the next generation of research on the large and growing disparities in health across states, as well as the troubling trends in health at the national level, must elevate a focus on corporations and their interest groups. 71 Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors. The Milbank Quarterly published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Milbank Memorial Fund.",
year = "2023",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1111/1468-0009.12617",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "101",
pages = "196--223",
journal = "Milbank Quarterly",
issn = "0887-378X",
publisher = "Wiley-Blackwell",
}