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Insurance decisions have consequences. We find out whose.
Deep Dive
When Your Lodge Was Better Than Your Health Insurance
Before Medicaid, before employer plans, and before hospital chains, millions of Americans got medical care through fraternal societies.
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The Man Who Decided Your House Isn't Worth Insuring
In 1968, a group of actuaries drew lines on a map and decided which neighborhoods deserved protection. Those lines are still there. So are the consequences.
How a 1945 Law Let Insurers Do Whatever They Want
The McCarran–Ferguson Act exempted insurance from federal oversight. It was supposed to be temporary. That was eighty-one years ago.
The Flood Maps Are Wrong and Everyone Knows It
FEMA's flood maps are decades out of date. Exposed populations are told they're safe. Then it rains.
Why Your Health Insurance Doesn't Cover That
Employer-based insurance was a workaround for World War II wage controls. It was never meant to be permanent. And yet.
Browse by Topic
Health
The decisions that shaped American health coverage—and the ones still shaping it.
3 articlesPropertyHomeowners insurance, redlining, and who gets to feel safe.
1 articleFlood & DisasterBad maps, worse policy, and the cost of pretending climate change isn't happening.
1 articleIndustryThe laws, the lobbying, and the structural rot.
2 articlesBad Decisions
The Memo That Killed Long-Term Care
In 1990, actuaries bet on how long Americans would live. They were spectacularly wrong, and millions of seniors are paying for it.