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.
Health Insurance
February 2026 T. Joseph Mattingly II, Madeline O'Neal,
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted on July 4, 2025, established the first nationwide Medicaid work requirement, replacing prior state-specific Section 1115 demonstrations with a uniform federal standard More
Health Equity Social drivers of health
February 2026 Julianna Pacheco, Nicole Novak, Samantha Deragon, Stephanie Schmitt,
We broaden our understanding of community power by going beyond traditional measures of voting and voting rights. Our objectives are to (1) create county-level measures of community power that are more expansive than voting and (2) explore the descriptive and geographic patterns of community power. More
Comparative Health Systems Primary Care
February 2026 Robert L. Phillips, Rebecca Fisher, Claire Jackson, Danielle Martin, Tim Olde Hartman, Felicity Goodyear-Smith,
Primary care is the foundation of most health systems; yet across diverse countries, structures, policies, and payment models, it is under threat. More
Population Health Social drivers of health
February 2026 Michael O. Emerson, Lauren Anderson, Jecorey Arthur, Nancy Seay, Ted Smith,
The United States lags far behind other comparable nations on health indicators. To promote population health in cities, we argue for the right to Universal Basic Neighborhoods (UBN). More
Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Policy
February 2026 Jennifer L. Pomeranz, Erika Hanson, Dariush Mozaffarian,
The United States is an outlier worldwide in its permissive regulatory landscape for direct-to-consumer (DTC) prescription drug promotion. Recent proposals to restrict DTC prescription drug advertising raise questions about potential challenges under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which protects commercial speech. More
Commercial Determinants of Health Population Health
February 2026 Ashley N. Gearhardt, Kelly D. Brownell, Allan M. Brandt,
Context: Ultraprocessed foods (UPFs) now dominate the global food supply and are strongly associated with risks for heart disease, cancers, metabolic… More
February 2026
Regulators should look to tobacco control for policies to manage ultra-processed food’s impact on health February 3, 2026—As the federal… More
Health IT Rural Health
January 2026 Pedram Fard, Hossein Estiri,
The December 2025 Executive Order on Artificial Intelligence has generated familiar responses from familiar quarters. More
Health Equity Population Health
January 2026 Sara Rosenbaum,
The implications of the Department of Justice’s action to eliminate the “disparate impact” test, which provides the legal foundation for removing discriminatory barriers in public health and health care. More
Rural Health
January 2026 Daniel Baslock, Nari Yoo,
Context: Inadequate descriptions of rurality limit comparisons across rural areas and can lead to overgeneralizations in health policy research.… More
