Early Views

Chronic absence, defined as missing more than 10% of time in school, has risen sharply in the United States following the COVID-19 pandemic and now affects more than one in four students.  More

Access to sexual and reproductive health care varies widely by geography, and state-level policies play a major role in establishing the contours that govern the coverage, provision, availability, and costs of services.  More

Rural and urban areas have diverged significantly in health care access and health outcomes over the last four decades.  More

The US public health system is facing an inflection point characterized by chronic underinvestment, workforce and service delivery challenges, outdated data infrastructure, growing health inequities, and increasing instability within the broader health care safety net including projected Medicaid coverage changes and continued rural hospital closures.  More

Building narrative power, a foundational strategy used in community organizing, involves dismantling dominant narratives that uphold inequity and constructing counternarratives that advance health equity and racial justice by reshaping how people make sense of the world.  More

Housing is a fundamental social determinant of health and is particularly amenable to policy intervention.   More

Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration projects are widely used to test innovative policies but are subject to “budget neutrality” limits so that federal expenditures do not exceed what the federal government would have spent if the project was not adopted.  More

Racial equity impact assessments (REIAs) are used by local governments to integrate equity considerations into policymaking and decision-making processes by evaluating potential impacts of proposed legislation before enactment.  More

From 2021 to 2025, federal nutrition assistance policy in the United States shifted rapidly from expansion to contraction, with major implications for food insecurity, diet quality, and chronic disease risk.  More

The United States incarcerates more people per capita than any peer nation, and its criminal justice system disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.  More

Trust in the US health care system has declined substantially in recent years, threatening patient engagement, care outcomes, and health policy effectiveness.  More

The 1992 340B Drug Pricing Program (“340B”) started as a narrowly focused program aimed at Public Health Service Act–funded clinics and public hospitals. Today 340B includes two-thirds of all nonprofit hospitals in the United States and accounts for more than $80 billion in discounted drug purchases.   More

In April 2018, a naked man with an AR-15 burst into a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. Firing at random, he murdered four people and gravely injured five more before escaping into the night.  More

Context: Politics is increasingly important to many Americans. Yet little is known about how the increasing centrality of politics affects…  More

In response to the high cost of state-run Medicaid programs, the 1993 Medicaid estate recovery policy was established to enable states to recover assets from the estates of beneficiaries after death. Estate recovery may trigger behavioral responses from older adults who may no longer view real estate as an attractive asset, may borrow money from home equity to cover the cost of increasing care needs, or may avoid enrolling in Medicaid altogether.  More