A new year brings a clear choice.
In 2026, The Medical Care Blog will focus more directly on how policy decisions shape health. Not just health policy in isolation, but policies across and intersecting between housing, labor, education, transportation, climate, and criminal legal systems. This approach is often called Health in All Policies.
The idea is simple. Health may be shaped by clinical care, but it does not start in the clinic. Health is shaped by decisions made far upstream. This focus does not replace our mission. It sharpens it.
We will continue to center health systems, health services research, and disparities in care and outcomes. But in 2026, we will more clearly examine why those systems produce the outcomes we measure. Policy is a major reason.
Building on the Work of 2025
In our 2025 year-in-review, we reflected on a year shaped by instability, rapid policy change, and widening inequities. Many of the most read posts asked the same question in different ways:
How did we get here?
Our Political Determinants of Health consensus statement gave us a shared language to answer that question. It named power, governance, and policy design as central drivers of health. It also challenged the field to move beyond description.
That statement was not an endpoint. It was a starting point. In 2026, this blog will lean into that challenge.
Why “Health in All Policies” Now?
Policy choices increasingly affect who gets care, when they get it, and whether it works. Coverage rules determine access to care. Payment policy shapes delivery. Immigration policy affects care continuity. Housing policy affects both chronic disease management and acute health status. Climate policy affects injury, heat illness, and displacement.
None of these are abstract issues. They show up in clinics, emergency departments, and communities every day. Health in All Policies gives us a way to connect those dots. It asks whether policies outside healthcare improve health, worsen it, or ignore it altogether. For a blog rooted in health services research, this lens matters. It helps explain variation that data alone cannot.
What Will Stay the Same
Our core commitments remain unchanged. We will continue to publish work on health systems and performance, access to care, quality and safety, health services research methods, and disparities in process and outcomes, all while maintaining an equity focus.
We will still value evidence over ideology. We will still welcome diverse viewpoints. We will still write for clinicians, researchers, policymakers, and students. The difference is emphasis, not abandonment.
What Will Change in 2026
In 2026, our readers will see more posts that explicitly link policy decisions to health outcomes. We will also publish more work that spans sectors. Housing, labor, transportation, and climate policy all belong here when they affect health. Readers will see:
- Analyses of state and federal policy changes and health effects
- Reflections on how courts, elections, and agencies shape care delivery
- Discussions of unintended consequences of well-intended policies
- Case studies showing policy impacts on real communities
- Methodological pieces on studying policy in health research
If a policy changes risk, access, or outcomes, we think it is relevant to us, and to you.
From Health Policy to Policy for Health
Health policy often focuses on healthcare. Health in All Policies focuses on health itself. That shift matters.
Many of the largest gains in population health come from non-medical decisions. At the same time, many harms come from policies that never mention health at all. Ignoring those policies limits our understanding. It also limits our impact. This blog will treat policy as a health intervention. That means asking hard questions:
- Who benefits?
- Who bears the cost?
- Who decides?
- What evidence informed the choice?
- What outcomes followed?
These are questions health services researchers already know how to ask.
The Role of the Medical Care Section
As Chair of the Medical Care Section, my goal for 2025–2026 was and remains alignment. Alignment between research and reality. Alignment between evidence and policy. Alignment between equity goals and actual outcomes. The blog plays a central role in that work. It allows rapid response to policy shifts, creates space for translation, and connects scholarship to lived experience.
In a time of such polarization, that role matters more than ever.
An Invitation to Contributors
This year, we invite submissions that take policy seriously as a health determinant. You do not need to be a policy expert. However, you do need to be clear, evidence-based, and grounded in impact. Strong submissions will make policy mechanisms more visible. What’s more, they should use data thoughtfully, acknowledge uncertainty, and name implications for any concerns about equity.
As always, we welcome work from researchers, clinicians, trainees, and community partners. Lived experience and empirical analysis both belong here.
Looking Ahead
2026 will bring policy decisions with lasting consequences. Some will improve health. Others will deepen inequities. Many will do both. The Medical Care Blog will not pretend these choices are neutral. We will analyze them. We will contextualize them. We will ask who is affected and how. Health in All Policies is not a slogan. It is a responsibility.
We look forward to the conversations ahead.
Ben King