The Health Implications of US Federal Changes to Nonhealth Structures and Policies

Since the election of President Donald J. Trump to his second term in office, his administration has taken many steps to weaken public health infrastructure and agencies, which is likely to have an impact on population health. Less discussed have been the health impacts of ostensibly "nonhealth" policies that the administration is also implementing. Drawing on the social determinants of health framework, the authors analyze how policies across the domains of environmental regulations, food assistance, housing, immigration, and economic policy fundamentally shape population health outcomes. The administration's sweeping deregulatory agenda-including rollbacks of environmental protections, cuts to nutrition assistance programs, and immigration enforcement policies-represents a systematic threat to the policy infrastructure that supports population health. These changes threaten to widen health gaps and undermine decades of progress in addressing the root causes of poor health. The analysis demonstrates that in evaluating contemporary threats to population health, we must look beyond traditional health sector policies to understand how the broader policy environment shapes the conditions in which people live, work, and thrive.