Policy Initiatives To Improve Population Health

By Suresh Kumar

My last few columns focused on industry. This one spotlights how governments can create policies that keep populations safe, align incentives, and promote collaboration and investment to help build healthier communities.

Policy initiatives must improve the health and wealth of nations and citizens. Governments play the role of instigator, convener, and arbiter in policy making to make tradeoffs between interest groups for the larger good of country and community. In policy making, as in healthcare, safety trumps efficacy and profit, and benefits must outweigh the risks of intervention. How do our public health policies stack up?