SNAP Is Linked With Improved Health Outcomes and Lower Health Care Costs
Summary
A substantial body of research links the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the nation’s most important anti-hunger program, with lower health care costs and improved health outcomes. Those include better self-reported health, lower risk of heart disease and obesity among adults who had access to SNAP as children, and greater medication adherence among older participants, who may also be better positioned to live on their own in their community. This research has emerged in the last 15 years (and not much of it yet reflecting the COVID-19 pandemic, during which SNAP expansions played a key part in averting increased hunger), adding to previous work showing SNAP’s powerful capacity to help families buy adequate food, reduce poverty, and help stabilize the economy during recessions.
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (2022). SNAP is Linked With Improved Health Outcomes and Lower Healthcare Costs.