VIDEO – BORN TO BE BLUE –
Oct. 27, 2022 – They merged that information with mortality data spanning from 1999 to 2019, and found liberal policies were associated with lower deaths among people aged 25 to 64, according to the study published Wednesday in PLOS ONE.
The analysis revealed changing state policies to fully liberal could have saved more than 171,000 lives in 2019, while changing them to fully conservative may have cost over 217,000 lives.
“As an academic who does scientific research, I studiously avoided talking about politics in my professional work. … But the data are pointing us to that as a determinant of health,” said study co-author Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
- Conservative vs. liberal policies
- According to study authors, policies were considered liberal if they:
- Expand state power for economic regulation and redistribution
- Protect the rights of marginalized groups
- Restrict state power to punish deviant behavior
