Healthcare
Does Health Insurance Improve Individuals’ Financial Health?
In a new paper, Yale SOM’s Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and his co-authors find that when Americans turn 65 and start to receive health insurance through Medicare, there is a measurable decline in debt, particularly in the South and among those with the greatest debt.
To Extend Vaccines’ Reach, Distribute Them through Dollar Stores
A new Yale study says that a partnership with the Dollar General retail chain, which is being considered by the CDC, could bring vaccination sites substantially closer to low-income, Black, and Hispanic households in many parts of the United States.
![A Dollar General Store in Selma, Alabama. Photo: Barry Lewis/InPictures via Getty Images.]()
To Convince the Vaccine Hesitant, Understand Their Underlying Motivations
What will change the minds of those reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine? Yale SOM’s Vineet Kumar and two Yale doctors used the tools of consumer marketing to survey hesitant healthcare workers and analyze their responses.
![An illustration of a puzzle in the shape of a head and a syringe]()
How Connecticut Accelerated Its Vaccinations
Josh Geballe ’02, Connecticut’s chief operating officer, explains the state’s controversial decision to switch to age-based eligibility for COVID vaccines—and says it likely saved lives.
![A drawing of a woman taking a selfie while getting a vaccination.]()
How COVID Has Worsened the Opioid Epidemic
There is another epidemic we cannot lose sight of: the opioid epidemic, which has become only more acute in the United States and elsewhere amidst the disruptions and stress caused by COVID-19.
![Family members of people who died after taking fentanyl pills at a press conference in Los Angeles in February 2021. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images.]()
Can Legalizing Cannabis Curb Deaths from Opioids?
A new study co-authored by Yale SOM’s Balázs Kovács uses new data to uncover a striking association: the more legal cannabis dispensaries there are in a given county, the fewer opioid overdoses.
![A cannabis shop in Leicester, Massachusetts, in November 2018, when the sale of recreational marijuana became legal in the state. Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images.]()
The Vaccines Bring Hope—and New Questions
A year into the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccines are a reality—and now we face the logistical and medical complications of inoculating a vast population while infection rages and the virus mutates. We asked Yale SOM’s Dr. Howard Forman, a public authority on the pandemic, for an update.
![A woman getting a vaccination]()
How Systems Thinking Can Help Stop Neglected Tropical Diseases
Despite being easy and inexpensive to treat, a group of common bacterial and parasitic infections kill hundreds of thousands of people in tropical countries each year. In a new paper, Yale SOM’s Teresa Chahine and her co-authors map the complex system of stakeholders surrounding the diseases and identify key leverage points for making progress.
![Students receiving a deworming treatment at a school in Rwanda.]()
The History of the Forgotten Pandemic
In 1957, a novel strain of the flu spread around the world, the first global outbreak since the 1918 flu pandemic. More than one million people died, 116,000 of them in the United States. But schooling, shopping, and sporting events went on as normal, and the pandemic has largely faded from public memory.
![A nurse at Montefiore Hospital in New York City receives a flu vaccination in 1957. Photo: Everett Collection Historical/Alamy Stock Photo.]()
Did Congress Just Fix Surprise Medical Billing?
A new federal law prevents patients from being billed by out-of-network doctors after being treated in an in-network hospital. We asked Prof. Fiona Scott Morton, whose research helped bring the practice to light, what the new law will mean for patients and healthcare costs.
![An emergency room in Moreno Valley, California, in May 2020. Photo: Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.]()
Study Shows Which Restrictions Prevent COVID-19 Fatalities—and Which Appear to Make Things Worse
New research from Yale SOM’s Heather Tookes and Matthew Spiegel finds that mask mandates, closing restaurants, and stay-at-home orders are all effective at saving lives, but other commonly used measures can actually worsen the spread of the pandemic.
![A sign reading "everyone is required to wear a mask" at Playland’s Castaway Cove, an amusement park in Ocean City, New Jersey, in September 2020. Photo: Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images.]()
