The Fund supports networks of state health policy decision makers to help identify, inspire, and inform policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund supports two state leadership programs for legislative and executive branch state government officials committed to improving population health.
The Fund identifies and shares policy ideas and analysis to advance state health leadership, strong primary care, and sustainable health care costs.
Keep up with news and updates from the Milbank Memorial Fund. And read the latest blogs from our thought leaders, including Fund President Christopher F. Koller.
The Fund publishes The Milbank Quarterly, as well as reports, issues briefs, and case studies on topics important to health policy leaders.
The Milbank Memorial Fund is is a foundation that works to improve population health and health equity.
Quarterly Topic
Quarterly Opinion
May 2022 Harold A. Pollack, Jason Lerner, Mary Beth Shapley,
Despite recognizing the importance of the social determinants of health, the health policy and public health community have failed to recognize and reward the profession and practice of social work, say Harold Pollack, Jason Lerner, and Mary Beth Shapley of the University of Chicago Urban Labs. More
Quarterly Article
March 2022 Sahil Sandhu, Hugh Alderwick, Laura M. Gottlieb,
This Perspective describes how public-financing approaches have progressed in the United States and England to support social prescribing. More
January 2022 John E. McDonough,
Back in my 20s, in early 1980s Massachusetts, I was a tenant organizer and advocate. I learned quickly that the landlord-tenant space was zero-sum,… More
November 2021 Paula M. Lantz,
Paula M. Lantz discusses the implications for population health and public policy on the declining birth rate in the US. More
November 2021 Hahrie Han,
Scholars and policymakers alike have understood the connection between the social determinants of health and health for centuries now, but progress in… More
October 2021 David S. Curtis, Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell, Daniel L. Carlson, Ming Wen, Michael R. Kramer,
Low birth weight and infant mortality rates vary among place and racial group in the United States, with economic resources being a likely fundamental contributor to these disparities. The goals of this study were to examine time-varying county median income as a predictor of LBW rates and Black-White LBW disparities and to test county prevalence and racial disparities in maternal sociodemographic and health risk factors as mediators. More
October 2021 Ashley Schram, Tessa Boyd-Caine, Suzie Forell, Fran Baum, Sharon Friel,
In the field of public health, the law and legal systems remain a poorly understood and substantially underutilized tool to address unfair or unjust societal conditions underpinning health inequities. The aim of our article is to demonstrate the value of expanding from a social model of health to a sociolegal model of health and empowering health actors to use the law more strategically in the pursuit of health equity. More
August 2021 Jeff Niederdeppe, Liana B. Winett, Yiwei Xu, Erika Franklin Fowler, Sarah E. Gollust,
Investments in early childhood education can have a long-lasting impact on health and well-being. This study by Jeff Niederdeppe of Cornell University and colleagues compared types of messages to garner public support, including simple advocacy messages, policy narratives (short stories with a setting, characters, and a plot that offers a policy solution to a social problem), and inoculation messages (messages designed to prepare audiences for building resistance to opposing messages). The authors found that narrative messages may be particularly effective in persuading individuals inclined to oppose such policies, while inoculation messages may protect favorable child care policy attitudes. More
