POPULATION HEALTH and Health Policy
The Significance of the Milbank Memorial Fund for Policy: An Assessment at Its Centennial
In 1935, when medical societies across the United States were complaining that the Milbank Memorial Fund endorsed health insurance mandated and subsidized by government, Albert G. Milbank, president of its board, accorded priority to protecting the Fund's “reputation and its personality” (Kingsbury 1935a). This article, on the occasion of the Fund's centennial, describes how its personality, expressed in the values, priorities, and methods of its leaders, influenced its reputation among persons who made, implemented, and studied the results of health policy. Its theme is that the Fund has been most effective when it has been a broker of practical knowledge about policy for preventing and treating illness, organizing and financing health and related services, and protecting and enhancing the health of populations.
Author(s): Daniel M. Fox
Volume 84, Issue 1
(pages 5–36)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0009.2006.00411.x
Published in 2006