PolicyCost.org

Measuring the human cost of federal policy changes since January 2025

Policy Impact Tracker

Real-time, “status at a glance” counters — grounded in documented sources and transparent assumptions.

Last updated: 2026-01-18 Methodology

This page visualizes the scale of selected, measurable harms tied to major U.S. policy disruptions. It’s designed to be understandable in seconds — like those “trees cut down” counters — while still being anchored in documented sources and clearly stated assumptions.

These are not precision forecasts. Where impacts are best represented as ongoing “flows” (e.g., annualized burdens), we express them as per-second counters. Where impacts are one-time “stocks” (like market swings), we intentionally exclude them from per-second math to avoid misleading visuals.

Lives Interrupted

Estimated preventable deaths driven by major policy disruptions (domestic + global). This is a conservative "status at a glance" counter, built from a small set of sources with explicit mortality modeling.

Loading...

One preventable death every ~33 seconds

Global health disruption (modeled): Primary driver (mortality-model sources)
Domestic health & safety impacts: Included only where attributable & conservative
Method: Flow-based; avoids one-time shocks
As-of: 2026-01-18

Household Cost Burden

Additional ongoing costs borne by households (flows only). This counter intentionally excludes one-time market swings and focuses on recurring burden estimates.

Loading...

$3,080 in additional costs every second

Tariff / price pass-through: Included where supported by mainstream estimates
Healthcare / premiums: Included where recurring
Rule: No one-time shocks (stocks) in per-second math
As-of: 2026-01-18

Prevention Opportunity Lost

Future costs created by cutting or underfunding prevention programs today (public health, environmental protection, early childhood, and global health prevention).

Loading...

$15,850 in future costs created every second

CDC & public health prevention: High ROI; avoids downstream catastrophe costs
Environmental protection: High ROI; lowers disaster/health burdens
Early childhood programs: Long-run economic & health returns
As-of: 2026-01-18

All counters are based on documented sources and transparent methodologies. View our comprehensive methodology

Quick note: “Real-time” here means continuously updated visuals based on the most recent annualized estimates and an explicit “as of” baseline — not a claim of perfect measurement.