Health and Wealth

As momentum for Baby Bonds grows around the United States, more and more stakeholders are making the case that wealth not only provides economic security, but also important health benefits.

In general, wealth provides people with greater agency, resiliency, and stability, allowing them to manage expenses, avoid unmanageable debt, navigate and mitigate crises, plan for and invest in their futures, buffer unexpected income shocks such as a pandemic, a car repair, or a loss of employment, and so much more.

Wealth also shapes health and developmental outcomes throughout life. Factors such as birthweight, socio-emotional development, and the quality of a child’s attachment to a caregiver are influenced by wealth.

Among many benefits, wealth directly protects health by enabling people to access quality health care, afford health-promoting goods and services, live in higher amenity neighborhoods, spend more time on health-promoting activities, and feel less anxious and more in control of their lives.

As the global COVID-19 pandemic brought to light, people with fewer resources are exposed to greater health and environmental risks, including limited access to affordable health care and higher rates of uninsurance and underinsurance, housing vulnerability, job loss, and other economic factors that fundamentally shape our health and wellbeing.

As a result, as a growing body of research demonstrates, people with wealth are more likely to have better health outcomes, including:

• improved physical and mental health across all age groups;
• improved maternal health; 
• reduced infant mortality; 
• greater life expectancy—as much as 6 years more than those with lower incomes;
• lower stress and anxiety; and 
• greater hope for the future.

In their 2024 paper, “An Asset Framework to Guide Nonhealth Policy for Population Health,” public health researchers Catherine K. Ettman and Sandro Galea note: 

There is now copious evidence that economic and social conditions shape population and individual health. Although the income-health gradient has been established across all life stages, there is evidence that wealth is a stronger indicator of financial well-being and predictor of subsequent health.

By helping more families build assets over time, Baby Bonds have the potential to improve individual and public health by addressing the upstream economic inequities that contribute to many health challenges.

Read on for resources, research, and articles on the connection between health and wealth.  

Resources

County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute
Take Action to Improve Health: Baby Bonds
September 2023

The CHR&R program provides data, evidence, guidance, and examples to build awareness of the multiple factors that influence health and support leaders in growing community power to improve health equity. The Rankings are unique in their ability to measure the health of nearly every county in all 50 states, and are complemented by guidance, tools, and resources designed to accelerate community learning and action.

Mom and Baby Action Network, March of Dimes
The Mom and Baby Action Network National Equity Framework Guide 
November 2020

In this guide, over 600 organizational partners, subject matter experts, and community members reviewed data, gathered insights, and developed a shared framework to guide collective efforts for years to come and tackle the complex issues driving inequities for parents, babies, and families across the country, including recommendations to invest in and pursue Baby Bonds.

Research

Catherine K. Ettman, Ben Thornburg, Salma M. Abdalla, Mark K. Meiselbach, and Sandro Galea
Financial Assets and Mental Health Over Time
November 9, 2024

This research article explores the relation of financial assets with symptoms of depression and anxiety using a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of U.S. adults fielded annually from 2020 to 2023, finding that having family savings was associated with lower prevalence of positive screenings for depression, anxiety, or both.

Victor Roy, Darrick Hamilton, and Dave A. Chokshi
Health and Political Economy: Building a New Common Sense in the United States
May 6, 2024

This article from the leadership team of the Institute’s Health and Political Economy Project lays out why a political economy lens is critical for building a new common sense, rooted in new infrastructures and investments like Baby Bonds, in the face of persistent health inequities and stagnating life expectancy in the U.S.

Catherine K. Ettman and Sandro Galea
An Asset Framework to Guide Nonhealth Policy for Population Health
May 2, 2024

This research article identifies three types of assets that unlock access to resources and shape population health—financial assets, physical assets, and social assets—and discusses how specific nonhealth interventions, including Baby Bonds, can be used to improve the health of populations.

Kathryn E. W. Himmelstein, Alexander C. Tsai, and Atheendar S. Venkataramani
Wealth Redistribution to Extend Longevity in the U.S.
January 29, 2024

The authors of this research article used modeling to show that Baby Bonds could "markedly narrow the racial mortality gap" by increasing overall American life expectancy at midlife by one year and increasing longevity for the poorest Americans by 6.4 years.

News and Opinion 

Victor Roy
This Juneteenth, We Must Invest in Our Future As Well As Remember Our Past 
June 19, 2024

In this op-ed for The Hill, Dr. Victor Roy, Senior Director of the Institute’s Health and Political Economy Project, spotlights the far-reaching impacts of the racial wealth gap on health and wellbeing, and how Baby Bonds and other asset-building policies can support not only family economic security but greatly improved health outcomes. Dr. Roy also discusses how healthcare professionals can get behind the movement for Baby Bonds.

Learn more about the connections between health and wealth via the Institute’s Health and Political Economy Project.