Advancing a political economy approach to health using lessons from US antitrust and climate policy

Abstract

Advocates of a political economy approach to US health policy center an analysis of power and the broad political, social, and economic landscape that enables or harms health. They must contend, however, with a dominant policy orientation focused on ensuring individual access to the existing healthcare system. This Policy Inquiry reviews the recent history of US antitrust and climate/industrial policy, both domains where policy movements taking a political economy approach have had significant and unexpected recent success, to draw lessons for health policy, in which a “care economy” movement aligned with political economy has had some momentum, but not produced major policy change. Advocates of a political economy approach to US health policy should continue to build on the momentum of the care economy movement while also looking for ways to tie healthcare market reform into the shifts in industrial policy and antitrust. Across both spaces, advocates should center the building of issue networks, make connections to historically resonant political themes, and, where possible, find ways to tap into the energy of youth organizers—all strategies shared across antitrust and climate policy.