Social Policy as Health Policy

An excellent article from today's JAMA [JAMA. 2009;301(11):1166-1169] is worth reading by all, as is the accompanying editorial on health disparities [JAMA. 2009;301(11):1169-1171.] The author, one of our faculty members, Steven H Woolf MD MPH, says that "The health consequences of social policies warrant greater attention from the health policy community." Comment: One can only hope that the politicians responsible for improving the health/medical care system in the US will read these articles and learn from them, but that is unlikely based on past performance.