Our comprehensive review and meta- analysis of these experiments find suggestive evidence of health benefits associated with investments in early life , income support , and health insurance interventions .
Housing and neighborhood trials had no effect on the outcomes included in the meta-analyses .
A positive effect of the trial on its primary socioeconomic outcome was associated with higher odds of reporting health improvements .
Early life , income , and health insurance interventions have the potential to improve health .
Policy Points Social policies might not only improve economic well-being , but also health .
Health policy experts have therefore advocated for investments in social policies both to improve population health and potentially reduce health system costs .
Since the 1960s , a large number of social policies have been experimentally evaluated in the United States .
Some of these experiments include health outcomes , providing a unique opportunity to inform evidence -based policymaking .
CONTEXT Insurers and health care providers are investing heavily in nonmedical social interventions in an effort to improve health and potentially reduce health care costs .
Welfare programs that target workforce participation may negatively affect mortality.
During the 1990s reforms to the US welfare system introduced new time limits on people 's eligibility to receive public assistance . These limits were developed to encourage welfare recipients to seek employment . Little is known about how such social policy programs may have affected participants ' health . We explored whether the Florida Family Transition Program r and omized trial , a welfare reform experiment , led to long-term changes in mortality among participants . The Florida program included a 24 - 36-month time limit for welfare participation , intensive job training , and placement assistance . We linked 3,224 participants from the experiment to 17 - 18 years of prospect i ve mortality follow-up data and found that participants in the program experienced a 16 percent higher mortality rate than recipients of traditional welfare . If our results are generalizable to national welfare reform efforts , they raise questions about whether the cost savings associated with welfare reform justify the additional loss of life
Our comprehensive review and meta- analysis of these experiments find suggestive evidence of health benefits associated with investments in early life , income support , and health insurance interventions .
Housing and neighborhood trials had no effect on the outcomes included in the meta-analyses .
A positive effect of the trial on its primary socioeconomic outcome was associated with higher odds of reporting health improvements .
Early life , income , and health insurance interventions have the potential to improve health .
Policy Points Social policies might not only improve economic well-being , but also health .
Health policy experts have therefore advocated for investments in social policies both to improve population health and potentially reduce health system costs .
Since the 1960s , a large number of social policies have been experimentally evaluated in the United States .
Some of these experiments include health outcomes , providing a unique opportunity to inform evidence -based policymaking .
CONTEXT Insurers and health care providers are investing heavily in nonmedical social interventions in an effort to improve health and potentially reduce health care costs .