Looking at the health effects of economic security policies
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Dear John,
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, passed
by Congress in March 2020, provided various types of temporary financial
assistance to millions of Americans.
The November 2022 issue of Health Affairs features a collection of
articles exploring the health effects of economic security policies,
some funded by CARES, while other articles examine COVID-19 more
broadly.
Read The Issue
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Economic Security
Alina Schnake-Mahl and coauthors find that after they controlled for
demographic differences, cities with paid sick leave policies had a
COVID-19 vaccination coverage rate 17 percent higher
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than the rates in cities without these policies.
Disparities in vaccination rates between less and more vulnerable
neighborhoods were also smaller in cities with paid sick leave policies.
Analyzing data from the period 2017-21, Kristen Harknett and Daniel
Schneider determine that paid sick leave laws narrow gender gaps
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in access to leave for service-sector workers.
"In the absence of a [paid sick leave] law, 43 percent of men and 38
percent of women reported access to paid sick leave," they find.
However, if these laws are present, up to 70 percent of men and 69
percent of women are covered.
Based on national data from 2020,
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Abdinasir Ali and George Wehby find "some evidence that state eviction
moratoriums were associated with an improvement in mental health, based
on a decline in number of days not in good mental health in the past
thirty, and in the likelihood of reporting fourteen or more such days."
In response to financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 crisis, many
states expanded access to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
(TANF).
Emily Dore and coauthors find
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that "providing emergency cash benefits to people not already
participating in TANF, waiving work requirements, waiving or pausing
sanctions, and automatically recertifying benefits" are associated with
reductions of self-reported mentally and physically unhealthy days among
likely TANF participants, relative to prepandemic levels.
Based on survey data from hourly workers in the retail, food service,
and hotel sectors in Philadelphia, Elizabeth Ananat and coauthors find
that Black and Hispanic workers are just as likely as White workers to
experience material and mental hardship
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when laid off and to have that hardship relieved if they receive
unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.
However, they are less likely to receive UI, which "means that
increasing equity in access to the program could help reduce the
disparate effects of job loss on non-White workers and related racial
health disparities."
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 expanded the Child Tax Credit
(CTC), a federal credit for qualifying families.
Using survey data from the period 2017-21, Benjamin Glasner and
colleagues find no evidence that the temporarily expanded CTC
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"translated into improved subjective well-being or mental health" for
recipients, even among lower-income families and racially and ethnically
minoritized groups, for whom the net benefit of the credit was larger.
Examining supermarket transaction data, Caitlin Lowery and coauthors
find that Healthy Helping, a short-term fruit and vegetable incentive
program implemented in North Carolina during the pandemic, led to
enrollees spending more on fruit, vegetables, nuts, and legumes
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than similar shoppers not enrolled in the program.
Christopher Ruhm examines the underlying causes of changes in US
mortality
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during the first year of the pandemic and concludes that the effects of
the recession, which reduced death rates, partially offset the pandemic
effect for most groups and causes.
An accompanying Perspective by Ellen Meara
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focuses on drug overdoses, and one by Steven Woolf discusses the
pandemic's long-term consequences
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Read More
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COVID-19
Neal Marquez and coauthors determine that during the first year of the
pandemic
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COVID-19 mortality rates for Black and Hispanic people in Texas prisons
were 1.61 and 2.12 times higher, respectively, than for White people.
In March 2020 the US began immediately expelling certain immigrants at
or near the southern border on public health grounds.
Joseph Nwadiuko and Arturo Vargas Bustamante examine border crossing and
COVID-19 case data
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and conclude that the "short-term inflow of immigrants to the US through
the Southwest border or as agricultural guest workers was weakly
correlated with COVID-19 infections, if at all, during March
2020-December 2021."
Shira Fischer and colleagues determine that theshare of patients willing
to engage in video telehealth
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increased from 50.8 percent in February 2019 to 62.2 percent in March
2021, and "increases in willingness were especially pronounced among
Black adults and adults with lower educational attainment."
Read More
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Acknowledgments
Health Affairs thanks Rita Hamad of the University of California San
Francisco for serving as adviser on the economic security papers. We
also thank the Blue Shield of California Foundation and the Episcopal
Health Foundation for their financial support.
Read More
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Order The Issue
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Join Health Affairs Unlimited to access our current and past issues
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Attend These Events
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As part of the launch of this month's issue exploring the health impacts
of economic security policies that were enacted during the COVID-19
pandemic, we will be hosting a free, virtual briefing tomorrow
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which selected authors and experts will present their work and engage in
discussions on these issues.
Join us at 2:00 PM ET tomorrow, and register for additional events this
month:
* Health Affairs Briefing: Tips for Navigating Our Request For Abstracts
Process
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(11/14)
* Insider Journal Club: "Racial And Ethnic Inequalities In COVID-19
Mortality Within Carceral Settings: An Analysis Of Texas Prisons
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(11/21)
* Insider Professional Development: Writing for Narrative Matters
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(11/29)
View Full Event Schedule <[link removed]>
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Listen To These Podcasts
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This month, we'll feature authors from the November issue discussing
topics like the rise of cross-market hospital systems, and racial and
ethnic disparities in pandemic-era unemployment insurance access.
Recently, Christopher Ruhm joined A Health Podyssey to discuss his
research analyzing the mortality effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
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the related economic recession.
On Health Affairs This Week, our editors discuss some of the most
pressing health policy news. In a recent episode, Leslie Erdelack and
Jessica Bylander discussed the FDA's efforts to pull the pregnancy drug
Makena
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the market and the implications for drug policy.
Check out our podcasts, and subscribe on Spotify
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or wherever you prefer to listen.
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mailto:
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About Health Affairs
Health Affairs is the leading peer-reviewed journal
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health care, and policy. Published monthly by Project HOPE, the journal
is available in print and online. Late-breaking content is also found
through healthaffairs.org <healthaffairs.org>, Health Affairs Today
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Update <[link removed]>. Â
Project HOPE <[link removed]> is a global health and
humanitarian relief organization that places power in the hands of local
health care workers to save lives across the globe. Project HOPE has
published Health Affairs since 1981.
Copyright © Project HOPE: The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.
Health Affairs, 1220 19th Street, NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20036, United States
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