Research Library

A comparison of the prices at three major Houston hospitals — Houston Methodist, St. Luke’s Health and Memorial Hermann — associated with Blue Cross Blue Shield and UnitedHealthcare PPO health plans finds wide-ranging costs for services.

Vaccination policies are a cornerstone of public health, but anti-vaccine activists have been adamantly pushing for legislation that would weaken and dismantle the public health infrastructure, the authors write. In this issue brief, they examine vaccine policy challenges leading up to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the future of vaccine legislation in Texas and the United States.

The authors identify key themes that emerged from anti-vaccine testimonies during the 2021 Texas legislative session and consider the implications of these discussions as the next legislative session draws near.

There have been promising developments in recent years in the fight to reduce overdose deaths. But barriers to drug checking and other overdose prevention tools remain throughout the country, writes fellow Katharine Neill Harris.

The 15% corporate minimum tax is one of the Inflation Reduction Act's key revenue-raising provisions Joyce Beebe reviews the background, operating mechanism and different perspectives associated with implementing the corporate minimum tax.

The U.S. is facing an acute semiconductor shortage, exacerbated by pandemic-related disruptions to global supply chains, writes fellow Joyce Beebe. In this brief, she analyzes two federal proposals that seek to expand U.S. semiconductor manufacturing and weighs the pros and cons of including tax incentives in any final bill.

Following the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan last summer, the world witnessed one of the largest and most rapid humanitarian evacuation missions in U.S. history. Since then, Afghan evacuees have faced numerous challenges in seeking resettlement in the United States.

Kelsey Norman examines the European and possible U.S. response to refugees fleeing Ukraine, noting the need to anticipate and plan for multiple pathways to medium- and long-term refugee protection in the event of a prolonged siege.

This October the U.S. and Mexico agreed on a new bilateral security program, but "unless the United States and Mexico pursue domestic structural reforms ... both nations risk backsliding to the failures of the drug wars," writes MGA student and Drug Policy guest contributor Sidney Phillips.