ArticleHealth affairs scholar2026
Recent trends in US government healthcare & behavioral health workforce departures.
Article in Health affairs scholar, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Behavioral and Mental Wellbeing in Indigenous Communities: A Protocol for Developing an Educational Program for Nurses, Community and the Health Care Workforce Serving Indigenous Communities.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
- Patient reflections on benefits, challenges, and improvement opportunities for a VA podiatry telehealth program: a qualitative study.Frontiers in digital health · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: Healthcare and behavioral health professionals employed by local, state, and federal governments are essential to maintaining public health infrastructure, ensuring access to care, and responding to emergencies. Despite their importance, limited research has examined how recent policy, budgetary, and labor market changes are influencing their employment stability and retention within government sectors. Methods: This study used longitudinal data from the Current Population Survey (2015-2025) to examine employment transitions among government-employed healthcare and behavioral health workers. We estimated the predicted probabilities of (1) transitions from government to non-governmental employment and (2) full exits from the labor force. Results: Historically, federal healthcare and behavioral health workers had the lowest exit rates from government employment, but their probability of leaving government employment rose sharply in 2024-2025, converging with state and local levels (8%). Healthcare workers were consistently more likely than behavioral health workers to transition out of government roles, though both groups experienced higher exit rates in 2024-2025. Federal employees also exhibited a modest increase in labor force exits, from 2.5%-3% to 3.8% in 2024-2025. Conclusion: These trends suggest increasing instability in the government-employed health workforce.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.