How State Policy Trends May Be Driving State Life Expectancy

Around 1980, the United States started lagging other high-income countries on life expectancy, and life expectancy trends began diverging widely by state. Jennifer Karas Montez, a sociologist at Syracuse University, and her colleagues wanted to find out why. In this episode, she discusses the results of a Milbank Quarterly study that found more liberal state policies, such as a higher minimum wage, are generally associated with longer life expectancy.