--- title: Why Paying for Nutrition Saves Money on Health Care description: A new study shows that SNAP food program can keep people's health costs low. The authors argue for why America needs to keep funding it canonical: https://time.com/4962475/nutrition-snap-health-care/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-10-02T14:38:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:28:52.268Z article:section: Health og:title: Why Paying for Nutrition Saves Money on Health Care og:description: A new study shows that SNAP food program can keep people's health costs low og:url: https://time.com/4962475/nutrition-snap-health-care/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b0029a8bbc2c3d4/6988dfe586f68e625f6e6a0f/grocery-aisle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5120 og:image:height: 2880 og:image:alt: Produce aisle in supermarket, close-up og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why Paying for Nutrition Saves Money on Health Care twitter:description: A new study shows that SNAP food program can keep people's health costs low twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b0029a8bbc2c3d4/6988dfe586f68e625f6e6a0f/grocery-aisle.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why Paying for Nutrition Saves Money on Health Care > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=0b5db928-8d3c-4577-a477-d7084bf643d6&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Hilary K. Seligman](https://time.com/author/hilary-k-seligman/), [Seth A. Berkowitz](https://time.com/author/seth-a-berkowitz/) and [Sanjay Basu](https://time.com/author/sanjay-basu/) Oct 2, 2017 2:38 PM UTC  MR & PR | date created: 2006:08:30 MR & PR | date created: 2006:08:30 Getty Images by [Hilary K. Seligman](https://time.com/author/hilary-k-seligman/), [Seth A. Berkowitz](https://time.com/author/seth-a-berkowitz/) and [Sanjay Basu](https://time.com/author/sanjay-basu/) Oct 2, 2017 2:38 PM UTC The foods we eat play a central role in our health. The epidemics of our time—[obesity](http://time.com/4850108/obesity-rates-smartphones-study/), [heart disease](http://time.com/4920832/fruit-vegetables-legumes-servings/), [type 2 diabetes](http://time.com/4940354/reverse-diabetes-weight-loss/)—are intimately tied to unhealthy patterns of eating. But eating healthy is also expensive, making it particularly challenging for the 12% of US households who have to worry whether they can afford enough food each month. For the [41 million Americans](https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/publications/84973/err-237.pdf?v=42979) living in these households, a common coping strategy is to purchase cheaper, less healthy foods in an effort to make their food budgets last longer. Over time, however, these unhealthy dietary patterns can have a significant impact on a person’s health. Children living in food-insecure homes suffer two to four times as many health problems and are less likely to reach their academic potential. Pregnant women who are food insecure are more likely to develop gestational diabetes and deliver pre-term or low birth-weight babies. Food-insecure adults are more likely to have diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, kidney disease and osteoporosis. The trouble doesn’t stop there. Once you have one of these illnesses, food insecurity often makes that illness harder to manage. One in three Americans with chronic illness [has trouble affording food, medication or both](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24440543). Moreover, the stress of worrying about where your next meal is coming from is associated with depressive symptoms, which only makes the task of managing a complex disease harder. It is not surprising, then, that food insecurity comes with a cost. On average, food insecure people in the U.S. incur an extra [$1,800 in medical costs](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28608473) every year, accounting for $77.5 billion in additional health care expenditures. The United States has some of the most robust programs in the world for people facing hunger. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), for example, helps [20.5 million households](https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/pd/30SNAPcurrHH.pdf) stretch their budgets to purchase food. Recently, our study team wanted to learn whether SNAP saves money in health care costs. In a [new study published in _JAMA Internal Medicine_](http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2653910), we found that people who are enrolled in SNAP have health care expenditures that are, on average, [$1,400 less](http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2653910) per year compared with similar people who are not enrolled in SNAP. Despite this, the White House has proposed cutting SNAP by $193 billion over 10 years—a cut of more than 25%—which would dramatically impact many people’s ability to afford food for themselves and their children. Could these cuts wind up costing more than they save? When SNAP benefits were [reduced in 2013](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28481762), we saw a rise in hospital admissions for dangerously low blood sugar, likely as people with diabetes ran out of food, leading to millions of dollars in extra health care costs. SNAP works. It was designed to decrease food insecurity in the U.S., [and it does](https://fns-prod.azureedge.net/sites/default/files/Measuring2013Sum.pdf). Now we are learning that SNAP may protect health, too. This is why cuts to SNAP could be so devastating. In addition to putting millions more people at risk of hunger, these cuts could further strain our health care system, and threaten the public’s health. With so much at stake, cutting SNAP doesn’t make sense. _Hilary Seligman, MD, is director of the Food Policy, Health and Hunger Research Program at the University of California San Francisco’s Center for Vulnerable Populations and senior medical advisor for Feeding America._ _Seth A. Berkowitz, MD, MPH, is assistant professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Diabetes Population Health Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School._ _Sanjay Basu, MD, PhD, is assistant professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine, Center for Population Health Sciences and Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research at Stanford University and faculty in the Center for Primary Care, Harvard Medical School._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4962475/nutrition-snap-health-care/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4962475/nutrition-snap-health-care/"},"headline":"Why Paying for Nutrition Saves Money on Health Care","datePublished":"2017-10-02T14:38:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:28:52.268Z","description":"A new study shows that SNAP food program can keep people's health costs low. 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