Time Scarcity, Health Behaviors, and Unconditional Cash in Los Angeles.

Abstract

Unconditional cash interventions, such as guaranteed income, are a proposed solution for mediating the adverse health outcomes associated with financial scarcity. To test this, the City of Los Angeles, California, conducted a mixed-methods, randomized controlled trial in which they gave 3202 people $1000 with no strings attached for 12 months in 2022. Although the quantitative findings demonstrated mixed health effects, the qualitative findings highlighted how recipients viewed their well-being as an insurance policy against scarcity and reallocated time to preventive health behaviors when receiving a guaranteed income. (Am J Public Health. 2025;115(8):1222-1225. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2025.308125).