Implementing certain federal policies that improve social determinants of health to alleviate poverty could save up to 100,000 lives per year, according to a June 10 study in JAMA Network Open.
The researchers modeled the effects of four different policies on a population of working adults in the U.S. The end goal of each policy was to give money directly to poor families, but each policy did so in a different way and by different amounts.
The results of the hypothetical modeling showed that by assisting people financially, more people could be lifted out of poverty and pushed into the next income bracket, which has a lower mortality rate. Implementing a universal basic income made the biggest difference, potentially averting 104,000 deaths a year.