Over the last few decades, health care services in the United States have become more geographically centralized. We … study how the loss of hospital-based obstetric units in over 400 counties affect maternal and infant health via a difference …-sections. In contrast to concerns voiced in the public discourse, the effects on a range of maternal and infant health outcomes are …

The 21st century has been a period of rising inequality in both income and health. In this study, we find that … the largest health gains during the last several decades. Nor was higher dispersion in mortality caused entirely by the … that high-income states in 1992 were better able to enact public health strategies and adopt behaviors that, over the next …