Policy Change

Health care providers’ voices carry enormous weight in public policy debates about the needs of vulnerable populations. By sharing their clinical experience with policymakers and advocates from other disciplines, providers can help to improve the broader systems and practices that affect the health trajectory of their patients.

MLP | Boston engages health care providers in multiple strategies for achieving policy change, including:

• Program research and evaluation;
• Publication of reports that connect the dots between poverty, law and policy, and health; and
• Submission of joint medical-legal written and oral testimony to legislators and other policymakers regarding policies that impact patient health and wellbeing.

A case study of the MLP patients-to-policy model, available here, explains how MLP | Boston and physicians at Boston Medical Center influenced the 2008 amendment of energy regulations by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, ultimately improving utilities access and health for low-income families throughout the Commonwealth.