Research Library

Texas voters took to the polls Tuesday to choose candidates for the November elections. Mark Jones, fellow in political science, compiled a list of seven takeaways from the primary runoffs.

Texas Hispanics were more than twice as likely as whites to have enrolled in health insurance plans offered through the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplace between September 2013 and March 2014, according to a report released by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation.

Cancer drug shortages are almost uniquely associated with generic drugs (small profit margins) and rarely with patented drugs (large profit margins). They are common in the U.S., but uncommon in Europe and elsewhere, where generic drug prices are on average higher than in the U.S. This suggests the main cause of drug shortages is economic.

Baker Institute health policy experts Hagop M. Kantarjian and Vivian Ho explain why Texas, which holds the notorious record of the highest rate of uninsured citizens in the U.S., should follow many Republican-led states that are now reconsidering the Medicaid expansion program under Obamacare.

Many contemporary medical ethicists dismiss the centuries-old Hippocratic Oath as outdated because of the enormous scientific, social, economic, and political changes since Hippocrates' time. Health policy scholar Hagop Kantarjian makes a case for its relevance.

Errors in surgical care for cancer patients may seem infrequent, but the costs associated with them are extremely high.

Data on revenues by payer type are used to identify the determinants of rising hospital prices in Texas between 2000 and 2007. By Vivian Ho, Jerome Dugan and Meei-Hsiang Ku-Goto.

Allowing the producer-dominated market to set drug prices has spiraled the cost of cancer drugs out of control. Drug pricing can be reduced while preserving the profit-making incentive, by linking price to a true measure of quality: preservation and meaningful prolongation of life.

Altering the Medicare policy on injectable drugs is one way to reduce Medicare expenditures. Allowing self-administration will also free up hospital and clinic capacity for other patients.

The United States should assign a particularly high priority on science and technology over the next four years, especially for federal support of research.