State policymakers often focus on improving residents' health by expanding access to quality health services. While the healthcare sector has a critical role in improving health outcomes, the circumstances in our everyday lives shape our health, whether it’s where we live, how we eat, where we go to school, or what opportunities we have (or don’t have) to succeed. It all has a profound effect on long-term health—regardless of what type of healthcare we receive. It is crucial for states to understand the evidence-based and evidence-informed policies that can improve health and well-being by looking at policies in a variety of sectors at the state-level that can improve health and their budgets over time.
Part of the Promoting Health and Cost Control in States (PHACCS) Initiative, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a collaboration between Trust for America's Health and the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University’s Beasley School of Law to provide states with ways to improve community health through cost-saving policy changes. This project includes six cross-sectional datasets on laws and policies that can promote health and control cost growth in states.
