Home Science To make SNAP healthier and save costs: Offer food incentives and disincentives

To make SNAP healthier and save costs: Offer food incentives and disincentives

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A new cost-effectiveness study estimates that nearly one million cardiovascular and diabetes events could be prevented and $42 billion could be saved in healthcare costs by including food incentives and disincentives for participants on SNAP. Of three models, two were cost-effective but the third, SNAP-plus, was not only cost-effective but actually cost-saving — i.e., the government gained more dollars than it spent — with net cost-savings of $10.16 billion at five years and $63.33 billion over lifetime.