Statistical Impact of New York Health Legislation

Abstract

As the US Government plays an increasing role in health care, it becomes essential to understand the impact of expensive legislation on actual outcomes. New York, having spent the last decade heavily legislating health-related behavior, represents a unique test case to gain insight about what factors cause health care legislation to succeed or fail. We present a longitudinal study comparing bills across 13 Health Areas to measure the effect legislation in that Area had on 311 hotline service complaints. We find that there is statistically significant evidence with p-value $p=0.05$ that legislation in the Hazardous Materials Health Area correlated with a positive change in outcomes. The other Health Areas correlated with changes, but were not statistically significant.