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 posts from our staff and guest authors.
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.
Reproductive Health State Health Policy
June 2026 Alina Salganicoff, Ivette Gomez, Usha Ranji,
Access to sexual and reproductive health care varies widely by geography, and state-level policies play a major role in establishing the contours that govern the coverage, provision, availability, and costs of services. More
Rural Health
June 2026 Michael Shepherd,
Rural and urban areas have diverged significantly in health care access and health outcomes over the last four decades. More
Population Health State Health Policy
June 2026 Amy Belflower Thomas, Reena Chudgar, Whitney Magendie, Megan McClaire, Joneigh S. Khaldun,
The US public health system is facing an inflection point characterized by chronic underinvestment, workforce and service delivery challenges, outdated data infrastructure, growing health inequities, and increasing instability within the broader health care safety net including projected Medicaid coverage changes and continued rural hospital closures. More
Academic-Community Partnerships Health Equity
June 2026 Yusra Murad, Kristina Medero, Chloe Gansen, Jasmine Sandate, Marissa Hallo, Sarah E. Gollust,
Building narrative power, a foundational strategy used in community organizing, involves dismantling dominant narratives that uphold inequity and constructing counternarratives that advance health equity and racial justice by reshaping how people make sense of the world. More
Social drivers of health State Health Policy
June 2026 Andrew Fenelon,
Housing is a fundamental social determinant of health and is particularly amenable to policy intervention. More
Commercial Determinants of Health
June 2026 John E. McDonough,
I’ve been examining how public policies have facilitated the transformation of America’s health and medical care systems into today’s financialized and commercialized realities. More
Global Health
June 2026 Lawrence O. Gostin,
When I arrived in Geneva for the World Health Assembly in late May, the World Health Organization (WHO) was scrambling to contain two extremely… More
Health Insurance
June 2026 Leighton Ku,
Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration projects are widely used to test innovative policies but are subject to “budget neutrality” limits so that federal expenditures do not exceed what the federal government would have spent if the project was not adopted. More
Health Equity Population Health
June 2026 Kellee White Whilby, Makeda Walelo, Heron Bondoc,
Racial equity impact assessments (REIAs) are used by local governments to integrate equity considerations into policymaking and decision-making processes by evaluating potential impacts of proposed legislation before enactment. More
Population Health
June 2026 Sara N. Bleich, Hilary Seligman,
From 2021 to 2025, federal nutrition assistance policy in the United States shifted rapidly from expansion to contraction, with major implications for food insecurity, diet quality, and chronic disease risk. More