Research Library

The article analyzes the spread of neglected tropical diseases in Somolia due to severe poverty, and civil strife, and discusses the need for reforms to the country’s health systems and infrastructure.

Houston’s pension funds are in financial trouble and pose a significant risk to the financial health of the city. This paper analyzes a subset of the city's pension plans—in particular, what is normally referred to as a defined benefit (DB) plan.

Previous studies of tobacco policies aimed at reducing hospitalizations may have overestimated the benefits of bans on public smoking and underestimated the benefits of cigarette taxes, according to new research by the Baker Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Yale University, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Public-place smoking bans play a critical role in improving public health, and we are not arguing that smoking bans be lifted in restaurants, bars and workplaces,” said research co-author Vivian Ho, the chair in health economics at the Baker Institute and director of the institute’s Center for Health and Biosciences. “However, policy makers and public health workers must be realistic in understanding the benefits of alternative policy interventions like taxes and bans. We found that raising cigarette taxes can have an immediate beneficial effect in terms of reducing costly hospitalizations. As for smoking bans, while these may eventually lower hospitalizations, our research found no immediate benefit in terms of reduced hospitalizations.”

Do “Right to Try” laws grant patients access to experimental drugs?

Insurers and physicians can partner to deliver care more efficiently and save costs, according to a study that examined Cigna’s Collaborative Accountable Care initiative’s partnership with the Medical Clinic of North Texas.

Japan's once-booming economy has been somnolent, mainly as a result of deflation and decreased productivity. This issue brief discusses Abenomics — the country's strategy for achieving economic growth — and the headwinds created by the demographic forces of aging in Japan.

The percentage of young adults ages 18 to 34 in Texas without health insurance has dropped by 35 percent since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect.

This study examines the correlation between visceral leishmaniasis and civil unrest in East African nations.

As Zika virus infection spreads across the Latin American and Caribbean region and into the southern United States, we can expect to see thousands of additional children born with microcephaly and more newborns or older infants with signs of more subtle but significant neurologic defects and developmental delays.

Using charts, figures and graphs of this survey data originally created by former career intelligence analyst Brian C. Bennett and updated by the Drug Policy Program, this issue brief offers an overview of drug use trends in America over the last four decades. The brief is part of a larger online project chronicling the pattern of the use and abuse of individual drugs over (in most cases) more than 40 years.