Reflections on the five laws of integrating medical and social services-21 years later

In 1999, Walter Leutz wrote a seminal article in The Milbank Quarterly on the need for and ways to better integrate medical and social services. He formulated five laws and offered three sets of lessons and recommendations. How relevant are the laws, lessons, and recommendations developed over two decades ago to the current challenges of better integrating health and social services? Do they still offer guidance? What has been learned? Are new “laws” needed? I assess these questions for each of the five laws and the three sets of lessons and recommendations relevant to the US experience.