Culture of Health Blog

This post is the second in a blog series that explores how preemption has served as a double-edged sword in either supporting or undermining efforts to advance health equity. We explore how some states have limited public health authority and what must be done to rebuild a public health infrastructure that centers equity.

For children and families, last year’s expansion of the Child Tax Credit provided crucial support, helping them afford basic needs like food, clothing, and housing. Yet this historic policy achievement that almost immediately reduced child poverty was fleeting. Just six months after the first payment went out, the opportunity to help children thrive abruptly ended. The expanded policy was never extended, and these families are now right back where they started.

Research shows that long term, sustained cash assistance has the greatest impact, confirming that this policy should be permanent. As we mark Tax Day here are four reasons why the expanded Child Tax Credit should be permanent:

1.  Reduces the number of children living in poverty. (That should be reason enough).

Even in a nation as wealthy as the United States, 10 million children experience poverty. The damaging effects of the conditions of poverty are relentless: hunger, homelessness, substandard schooling, and a lack of access to healthcare and child care. The populations hit hardest by the pandemic are the same ones experiencing the highest poverty rates: Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous children and their families.

Families don’t live in silos—one silo for health care, one for child care support, and yet another for food assistance. They need all those things—and more—to build strong and healthy futures for their children.

That’s why at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), we're supporting a multi-state laboratory for advancing policies that strengthen families across a range of issues. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) is the hub for this initiative. We are administering $2.65 million in grants to state-based organizations working to ensure that children and families get the support and resources needed to raise healthy kids through policy and systems change.

That means instead of addressing one issue at a time—e.g., child care supports or family leave—an array of issues are being addressed simultaneously. These include child care and family leave and minimum wage and job training and other policies that can help families get ahead. These policy levers are interconnected, playing off each other, which is why a holistic approach is needed to make real progress in families’ lives.

Change is not easy and it takes time. It can be especially challenging when we’re working to change policies and systems that have been in place for decades. But we know change is necessary because many people in America still face discrimination, live in poverty, and do not have the basics they need to be healthy.

We also know that some places are making progress to replace policies that are driving inequities with new policies that can help close health gaps. Places like Newark, N.J., where a unique collaboration led by the state’s largest health care system is accelerating a movement to transform the community’s food system.

Five years ago, the U.S. launched an overhaul of nutrition standards for kids. How far have we come?