Making a difference in differences for the health inequalities of individuals

Abstract

Policy interventions should focus on the degree to which health conditions are persistent, avoidable, and treatable. Assistance should be targeted to people who are at greater risk for such conditions amid the most pronounced gaps between their available resources and likely economic needs. The highest-yield interventions should address prenatal and early childhood care and reformation of destructive lifestyle practices. Improving outreach, education, convenience of access, and service delivery represents a more important factor than expanding the level and scope of insurance coverage. Vulnerable people are better served by more pluralistic social processes that facilitate, but do not mandate, more effective choices and trade-offs.