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One out of every five low-income Americans depends on Medicaid, the national insurance program for the poor jointly run by federal and state governments. Medicaid provides insurance coverage for a broad array of health services from pregnancy care and childhood immunizations to emergency hospitalizations. As the practice of health care...

When companies or individuals make investments in a business in another country, experts call this “foreign direct investment.” Today, China is the fastest growing source of such investments. From the early 1990s to 2015, Chinese and Hong Kong’s foreign direct investments increased from a few hundred million to $2.5 trillion...

In a recent ruling about new Medicaid work rules, the Trump administration seeks to undermine the sovereignty of tribal nations and limit the healthcare benefits to which Native Americans have long been entitled. This is the latest in a series of moves to reduce federal commitments to Native peoples who...

International law is in a rough period. Since 2016 institutions as varied as the European Court of Human Rights, the World Trade Organization, and the International Criminal Court have been harshly criticized by politicians chafing at their strictures. The reasons for growing dissatisfaction vary. Africans unhappy with human rights prosecutions...

All too often, hospitals across the United States take care of adult patients who lack the capacity to make their own medical decisions -- and who are on their own, without a friend, family member, or any other decision-maker authorized to speak on their behalf. The number of these types...

Many citizens in Europe and the United States believe that the quality of democracy has declined over the last few decades. Political cartelization and patronage-oriented styles of governance can help explain how parties collude to survive as public debates narrow and the grassroots bases of parties wither. Global development ties...

The U.S. healthcare system spends over $210 billion per year on health care to deal with problems of obesity. Americans who are overweight or obese are more likely to suffer from type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and a range of other chronic diseases. Obesity has become the second leading cause...

People without health insurance, on average, have shorter lives, a lower quality of life, and often experience health care related financial hardships. Since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the ranks of Americans without health insurance have steadily declined. In 2014, roughly 10.4% of individuals under...

With the exception of the United States, nearly all developed, industrial countries in the world provide universal health coverage. Most of these programs are created through compulsory, government-subsidized insurance plans. Why is the United States different? And how might the United States create a system that provides greater coverage for...

Starting in late April of 2018, the small Central American country Nicaragua entered the media spotlight as massive street protests rocked the decade-long authoritarian regime of President Daniel Ortega. Brutal government repression has killed over 200 and led to intensified calls for Ortega to step down. Although nobody could have...