Medicaid continues to constitute a key component of the safety net for low-income households, covering more than 76 million Americans in 2016. Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 37 states expanded Medicaid to cover adults with incomes up to 138 percent of th... More »
Renewable energy is increasingly popular as the urgency for climate action intensifies around the globe. Meanwhile, ongoing technological and economic challenges dominate the debate over the deployment of renewables, marginalizing the discussion of the geopoli... More »
Climate change poses a vast set of public policy challenges ranging from energy generation and resource extraction to food production and transportation. However, in the United States today, some policymakers and legislators regularly propagate misinformation ... More »
In 2015, a record 1.3 million people sought asylum in European Union (EU) states — the largest annual flow into the continent in 30 years. Although the number of persons annually seeking refuge in Europe has fallen since 2015, the EU now faces a significant pu... More »
In 2018, there were 234,000 new cases of lung and bronchus cancer in the U.S. and 154,050 estimated deaths — the highest among all types of cancers. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cigarette smoking is linked to 80 to 90 percent of... More »
In 2017, as opioid-related deaths surpassed deaths from car accidents and gun homicides combined, the Trump Administration declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. Since then, policymakers have responded with solutions ranging from pharmacological... More »
Smart homes are a critical component of the developing smart energy grid. Smart home technologies make it easier for homeowners to reduce their energy consumption, and these features alleviate stress on the grid during periods of high electricity demand. As su... More »
In the 1980s, churches across the United States sought to provide shelter for refugees fleeing violence in El Salvador and Guatemala. The U.S. supported the regimes of these countries, and it did not want to provide political asylum to their refugees. Neverthe... More »
Approximately one in every five dollars spent by Medicare is spent during a patient’s last twelve months of life, with most of this spending used to pay for inpatient medical care and physician costs. Despite taking up 20 percent of its budget, end-of-life cas... More »
Although numerous researchers have examined the potential negative consequences of teen parenthood, fewer studies have investigated how having children later in life can benefit or disadvantage those children. As the average age of first-time mothers continues... More »
In most countries, children with special educational needs (SEN) are taught in segregated settings, but some children with SEN eventually return to general education classrooms. This is due to politicians’ increased push for inclusive education, as well as the... More »
Childhood obesity is an issue in the United States. According to the CDC, nearly 1 in 5 school-age children and young people (ages 6 to 19) in the U.S. experienced obesity from 2015–2016. Policymakers have experimented with several policies to prevent obesity ... More »