Hunger and food insecurity cost the U.S. economy more than $160 billion in poor health outcomes.
Another week, another report on Americans facing concerning access to basic human needs. This week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its annual report, Household Food Security in the United States in 2020.
Data for the report was collected from 34,330 households in December 2020, though at first glance, this is misleading. While 89.5 percent of U.S. households were “food secure” at that time, the devil was is in the details for the remaining 10.5 percent; incidence rose among households with children, Black Americans, and persons residing in the South. Here’s the lowdown:
For healthcare organizations, this topic packs a fiscal punch. Data from the Bread for the World Institute shows that hunger and food insecurity cost the U.S. economy more than $160 billion in poor health outcomes; this amount is higher than all state and federal spending on higher education. Food-insecure adults have annual health expenditures of more than $1,800 per person, and close to $1,900 per child.
Other studies reveal that food insecurity increases trauma for all ages, from children to older adults. Chronic illness intensity, morbidity, and mortality, as well as low-birth weight infants and more frequent neonatal births, hospitalizations, and lengths of stay are also associated with nutrition insufficiency. Food pharmacies and “food for life” markets are becoming the norm at facilities around the country, mitigating traumatic and negative health consequences associated with nutrition insufficiency.
This week’s Monitor Mondays survey asked our listeners, “what percentage of their patient population would benefit from an onsite ‘food is medicine’ market or pharmacy?” The results appear here.
Programming Note: Listen to Ellen Fink-Samnick’s SDoH report Mondays on Monitor Mondays, 10 Eastern.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published several new proposed rules regarding Medicare payments for 2025. In addition to updating payment rates,
EDITOR’S NOTE: Research input for this report was provided by Kate Choi, a junior at Brown University and a current government affairs intern at Zelis.
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