May 19, 2013
Previous Editions 
Original Reporting
Original Reporting
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Aging, Poverty, Social Security
The evidence we have pieced together through additional probing suggests that for those aged 45 to 54, there is a range of policy options — beyond the fatalistic prescription to “just work longer” — that has the potential to materially enhance retirement security, if adopted quickly. For those aged 55 to 64 the outlook is bleaker, though temporary increases in Social Security payments targeted to that group (or its poorest members), or an expansion of anti-poverty programs such as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), could, if enacted, ameliorate the worst of the anticipated impacts on the poorest retirees.
Despite the availability of a potential solution for the 45- to 54-year-old group and of an improved safety net for the 55- to 64-year-old group, no one we spoke with suggested that the political will to effect such changes exists today.More
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Alternative models, History
Does the notion that every American should be guaranteed a basic level of income sound utopian? In the late 1960s and early 1970s it was mainstream.More
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Alternative models, History
As “market values” have replaced “social values,” they've driven a once-popular policy idea out of favor. Not coincidentally, the prevailing American concept of citizenship has come to de-emphasize participation and mutual obligation.More
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Social Security, Taxes
Narrowing or eliminating the exclusion of earnings above $113,700 from Social Security taxation may or may not be a good idea, but it is surely a matter central to the public policy choices to be made, and is a matter of significant public interest. Nevertheless, most Democratic and Independent Senators questioned would not state their position on the issue.More
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Reproductive health services
Little is being done to expand training options, and some abortion-rights supporters are reluctant to draw attention to the issue. Who is said to need more training access and opportunities? Medical students, residents, and practicing physicians.More
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Health care, Insurance, Quality of life
The limited debate of the last few years keeps the public from knowing the full scope of the potential health benefits it is being asked to give up.More
Original Reporting
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Corporate influence, Health care, Insurance
The hawking of market-based prescriptions. Part 2 of our series on how public discussion of quality of medical care came to be supplanted by an almost exclusive focus on cost control.More
Original Reporting
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Corporate influence, Health care, Insurance
The rise of “competitive,” for-profit health insurance from the ’70s to the ’90s. Concerns about quality of care lose out. First in a series.More