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Private insurance companies can play a powerful role in reforming police practices

Police insurers wants to make sure that the departments they cover minimize risk for liability.
Insurance companies actually work with police departments to manage risk. There's a chance that makes things worse, too.
Mark Makela/Getty Images

COVID-19: What travel insurance will and won't cover

Mar 3, 2020
Viral outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics are not typically listed in a travel insurance policy.
Passengers from a flight from South Korea wear protective face masks upon landing at Mexico City's international airport, on Feb. 28, 2020 as COVID-19 spreads worldwide.
Alfredo Estrella/AFP via Getty Images

The barter economy behind major art museums

Oct 28, 2019
The Louvre spent 10 years negotiating with other museums to mount the largest Leonardo da Vinci exhibit ever. Here's a look inside the process.
People take pictures of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Virgin and Child With Saint Anne" at the opening of the Louvre's exhibition in Paris on Oct. 22.
Francois Guillot/AFP via Getty Images

The economics of kidnapping

How the criminal underworld operates the ransom business.
Philippine soldiers walk along a highway as they return to camp after an armed encouter with members of militant kidnap-for-ransom group, Abu Sayyaf, in the Sulu province on the southern island of Mindanao on August 26, 2016.
STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Would requiring prices in pharmaceutical ads make drugs cheaper?

Apr 9, 2019
The idea is that transparency would lead to more competition and lower costs. One drug company is already on board.
Philippe Huguen/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Want to know the true price of a hospital procedure?

Jan 4, 2019
A new system can help you find out.
A doctor holds a stethoscope on September 5, 2012.
Adam Berry/Getty Images

CAT bonds could be key to paying for wildfire losses

Dec 10, 2018
Some urge FEMA to issue a catastrophe bond to help pay for wildfire recovery.
Firefighters battle flames at a burning apartment complex in Paradise, north of Sacramento, California, on Nov. 09.
JOSH EDELSON/AFP/Getty Images

What does public charge proposal mean for hospitals that treat immigrants?

Dec 10, 2018
Today is the final day for comment for the Trump administration’s public charge proposal that would make it harder for immigrants to qualify for citizenship if they’ve used public benefits, including SNAP, public housing and Medicaid. Immigrants who’ve received cash assistance or long-term medical care already have a strike against them when they apply for […]
Immigrants make up roughly 12 percent of the population in this country, but account for just 8.6 percent of heath care expenditures. 
John Moore/Getty Images