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

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 ove...