Why health savings accounts are a bust for the poor but a boost for the privileged
The latest Senate health care bill is still a hodgepodge of efforts to repeal Obamacare, critics say. One of their concerns is the focus on HSAs.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Health care debate
The 5 faulty beliefs that have led to Republican dysfunction on health care
Republicans have had a hard time dismantling the Affordable Care Act, despite their promises. That could be because they are operating under certain beliefs about health care that are not accurate.
GOP health care bill would make rural America’s distress much worse
Health outcomes for rural Americans have steadily deteriorated in recent decades even as they've improved elsewhere. The GOP plan to replace the Affordable Care Act will worsen the problem.
Not just for the poor: The crucial role of Medicaid in America’s health care system
As Republicans seek to repeal Obamacare, they have added an overhaul of Medicaid to their plans. Here's a look at the program and the surprising number of people who would be affected by cuts.
How pre-existing conditions became front and center in health care vote
How preexisting conditions came to be a condition for passage of the Republicans' health care law is a complicated tale. Insurers created the cost-saving technique, excluding millions over the years.
Analysis and Comment
EU’s antitrust ‘war’ on Google and Facebook uses abandoned American playbook
Europe's approach to antitrust enforcement picks up where the US left off in the 1980s, when the view that breaking up monopolies hurt innovation took hold.
Why some are applauding Donald Trump Jr’s ‘win at all costs’ attitude
Yes, American politics is getting uglier. Here's why.
Combatting stereotypes about Appalachian dialects
The founder of the West Virginia Dialect Project hopes to debunk some of the myths about the way Appalachian people speak and instill pride in a rich, oft-maligned culture.
Is a healthy environment a human right? Testing the idea in Appalachia
Are all people entitled to live in a clean and healthy environment? A legal scholar says yes, and argues for using this principle to address damage from polluting industries in Appalachia.
What an artificial intelligence researcher fears about AI
He spends his days developing artificial intelligence systems. What about AI keeps him up at night?
America’s public housing crisis may worsen with Trump budget
Since the 1990s, the supply of deeply subsidized housing has decreased as the US population and need for housing have increased. Trump's proposed cuts to HUD won't help.
The next step in sustainable design: Bringing the weather indoors
Research shows that bringing nature indoors, in the form of movement created by light, wind and water, makes occupants calmer and more productive. It also could promote interest in sustainable design.
Race, cyberbullying and intimate partner violence
A recent Pew survey reported that young African-Americans are more likely to be both victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying. Why?
How the Catholic Church’s hierarchy makes it difficult to punish sexual abusers
The hierarchy of the Catholic Church requires nearly absolute obedience. This makes it difficult to speak up against superiors. And by the same token, superiors too can protect offending priests.
Energy-recycling stairs could add a spring to your step
For those with reduced mobility and even just the normally aging, stairs can pose a big problem. A cheap and efficient new prototype could help.
Cherishing stuff with a photo can help you let go of it
Most Americans cling to things with sentimental value that we no longer need. Taking pictures of these possessions may make it easier to give them away.
How do fire ants form amazing towers and rafts without a master plan?
Researchers identified simple behavioral rules that allow these tiny creatures to collaboratively build elaborate structures, with no one in charge.
Would impeaching Trump restore the rule of law? Lessons from Latin America
Ousting an executive leader from office doesn't always have the intended effect, as these examples from Central and South America show.
Inside the minds of Trump’s ‘true believers’
What sort of beliefs made a mass movement succeed?
How Trump’s nominee for the Fed could turn central banking on its head
Randal Quarles, the president's first nominee to the Federal Reserve's board of governors, has argued the bank should use rules to make decisions. But could such a shift prove disastrous in a crisis?
Death as a social privilege? How aid-in-dying laws may be revealing a new health care divide
People who seek aid in dying tend to be white men older than 65, a new analysis shows. While this could be due to religious views, here's why it could also be because of lack of access.
On land or ship, port chaplains offer comfort to seafarers of the world
With 90 percent of global goods coming to us by ship, who are the men and women who care for the crews?
How ‘Game of Thrones’ became TV’s first global blockbuster
A unique set of circumstances allowed HBO to beat Netflix to the punch.
Banning smartphones for kids is just another technology-fearing moral panic
Teaching fear and avoidance of technology may protect people from negative consequences. But it also prevents them from finding, and benefiting from, productive uses of new innovations.
Give and take: Credentials could aid panhandling
The courts are saying that down-and-out Americans have a right to seek curbside alms despite efforts to ban the practice. Two scholars have come up with an alternative to anti-panhandling ordinances.
Why we need to save the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Republicans are hoping to eliminate or at least defang the only federal agency tasked solely with protecting consumers from financial abuses. What would we miss if they succeed?
North Korea
Why did sanctions against North Korea’s missile program fail?
The international community has been trying to stop North Korea from developing long-range missiles for decades. So how did North Korea get one?
How China could use trade to force North Korea to play nice with the West
4 things to know about North and South Korea
Explainer: what is ballistic missile defence – and would it stop a missile from North Korea?
North Korea missile test: how Trump’s unpredictability changes the game
What makes Kim Jong Un tick?
North Korea and the dangers of Trump’s diplomacy-free Asia strategy
North Korea cyberspace offensives pose challenge in US-China relations
Healthcare debate
What happens when the federal government eliminates health coverage? Lessons from the past
Cutting back or cutting out social safety net programs, as the Senate and House health care proposals would do, is rare. Here's a look at how such actions have fared.
Life sciences
How flu changes within the human body may hint at future global trends
New genetic technologies are letting us look at flu evolution right where it starts: within individual people, while they're sick.
Research and Expert Database
Editors’ Picks
Pot with patents could plant the seeds of future lawsuits
The federal government outlaws marijuana, but many states are legalizing it. Coupled with the growing number of cannabis-related patents, the potential for court battles is dizzying.
Cash is falling out of fashion – will it disappear forever?
You can now pay your way with apps, cryptocurrencies and other digital alternatives. Physical money might one day look like a relic of the past.
From public good to personal pursuit: Historical roots of the student debt crisis
About 44 million Americans are still paying off student loan debt. But it didn't always used to be this way. As the perceived purpose of a college education changed, so too did the way we pay for it.
How Spam became one of the most iconic American brands of all time
Eighty years ago, Hormel Foods introduced a simple, canned meat product called Spam. It would go on to become one of the greatest marketing success stories of all time.
From the Pentagon Papers to Trump: How the government gained the upper hand against leakers
American citizens have long favored government openness over secrecy. But with heightened anti-leak and anti-press rhetoric, do some now want strengthened government control of information?
How the Nazis destroyed the first gay rights movement
The 1920s and early ‘30's looked like the beginning of the end for centuries of gay intolerance. Then came fascism and the Nazis.
Energy wonks have a meltdown over the US going 100 percent renewable. Why?
How fast can the US transition to clean energy and with what energy sources? Here's why an impassioned debate among energy wonks matters to the rest of us.
American slavery: Separating fact from myth
On Juneteenth, the day that commemorates the ending of slavery in the US, a historian dispels myths about the 'peculiar institution' of slavery.
Can yoga be Christian?
Wednesday, June 21, is International Yoga Day. A scholar explains how yoga is being Christianized in different parts of the world. So, what then is real yoga?
What went wrong with the F-35, Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter?
The most expensive defense program in world history has yielded a multi-role fighter plane that is an inelegant jack-of-all-trades, but master of none.
Loving v. Virginia: Exploring biracial identity and reality in America 50 years after a landmark civil rights milestone
In 1958, Mildred and Richard Loving were arrested in Virginia for the crime of being married. The couple helped spark an effort to strike down laws against interracial marriage in the United States.
The decline in foreign students hurts America’s future
International student integration can (and should) be fostered on college campuses for the sake of national security and professional readiness.
Working memory: How you keep things ‘in mind’ over the short term
Both psychologists and neuroscientists are interested in how working memory holds on to items over brief intervals – and are investigating from different angles.
What rural, coastal Puerto Ricans can teach us about thriving in times of crisis
At society's margins, people without access to the mainstream job economy are able to carve out lives rich in other resources and community.
New public database reveals striking differences in how guns are regulated from state to state
How have state firearm laws changed over time? Over the past 27 years, some states have loosened the rules for gun owners and the gun industry, while others are getting stricter.
Most Read past week
- Would impeaching Trump restore the rule of law? Lessons from Latin America
- Do poor people eat more junk food than wealthier Americans?
- Don’t hate your gut: It may help you lose weight, fight depression and lower blood pressure
- Inside the minds of Trump’s ‘true believers’
- What an artificial intelligence researcher fears about AI
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