Harvard Public Health

Out Now

Issue

Fall 2023

Feature

North Carolina’s radical Medicaid reinvention

Eighty percent of what affects our health happens outside of a medical setting. The state is investing $650 million to address the social drivers of health.

Illustration: Six different hands work to put together a puzzle in the shape of the state of Minnesota with the Medicaid caduceus at the center. The hands are different races and ages. The puzzle pieces are blue, pink, yellow and green.

Feature

Can Medicaid solve the “Minnesota Paradox?”

The state is one of the best places to live in terms of education, health, and quality of life—unless you’re Black. Minnesota Medicaid is trying to change that.

Photo collage: a sunburst pattern has a photo of a bill being signed at center. Four photos are interspersed through the colorful sunbeams. L-R: Middle aged Latina woman smiling, young Latina woman smiling, young Latina woman wearing a “Health Care 4 All” t-shirt speaks in front of a microphone at a protest, and a medical worker wearing a grey sweater and blue mask speaks to a patient off-camera.

Feature

California takes a major step toward universal coverage

California is about to give insurance coverage to every low-income resident, documented or not.

Illustration: Circles move on a series of red, yellow, black, blue and green paths, the colors of the South African flag.

Feature

The path to universal access

South Africa is committed to single-payer health care, but achieving it won’t be easy.

Latest

A female carries a sign that reads "We are working people, not criminals; we are the ones who harvest the crops; Immokalee farm workers strong” in Spanish at a large gathering of migrant farm and other workers. She wears a pink t-shirt and brown sun hat. On her right is a teenager holding a hand-colored flag that is half Mexico, half United States. On the main figure’s right is a sign that reads “Say no to SB 1718.”

Feature

Florida law sows misinformation among immigrants about health care access

The law requires hospitals that accept Medicaid to ask for patients’ immigration status. It doesn’t require patients to answer.

A black female healthcare worker visits a mother and son at their home. The healthcore worker checks his lungs with a stethoscope.

Opinion

Maternal mortality is soaring. Home visits might help.

Community health workers’ visits made a difference, especially for Black mothers, in Michigan.

Two elementary-aged children eat apples in a school cafeteria. They are wearing blue-polo shirts and there is a bright mural in the background.

Opinion

The free school lunch paradox

Studies from around the world show U.S.-supported free school meals improve health, education, and economic development. So why are they at risk of cuts back home?

Most Popular

A red protest sign (left) and an orange protest sign (right) are held in the air. The red one reads “Who lobbied for this?” in black text. The orange one reads “We need healthcare options not obstacles.”

Opinion

Healthcare is a human right – but not in the United States

Abortion rights are just the latest casualty of U.S. failure to ensure universal and equitable access to healthcare.

Black and white paper cutouts are scattered on a textured-blush background. The images are an isolated mouth shouting, a pair of glasses with eyes staring, a large explosion, a mega-hone, a pointing finger, a thumbs-down , a scale and a thin female midsection in underwear with a measuring tape around her midsection. Black type-writer text is scattered on the image. It reads: “Thin is in.” “Diet now.” “Lose weight.” “Mind over matter.

Opinion

Let’s end the war on obesity

The way America fights obesity is increasing stigma and leading to harmful behavior. For truly better health, we need a new approach.

Book cover of “Ultra-Processed People: The Science Behind Food That Isn’t Food” By Chris Van Tulleken. The book cover design is a photo illustration of a yellow warning sign with processed food behind it. The illustration and text (white and yellow) sit on a teal plastic-wrap looking package. The book cover is on jade speckled background.

“Ultra-Processed People” hopes to disgust Americans into dumping poor diets

British physician Chris van Tulleken argues ultra-processed foods have negative long-term effects on our health.

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Books

Book cover for “Blight: Fungi and the coming pandemic” by Emily Monsoon. The cover art shows purple microscopic fungi molecules on a beige and blue background. The text is in white. The book cover lays on a purple-speckled background.

A fungal pandemic won’t be “The Last of Us,” but it will be dangerous

We live in harmony with most fungi, but a small minority threaten human and environmental health.

Book cover of “The Forgotten Girls: A Memoir of Friendship and lost promise in Rural America” by Monica Potts. The book cover shows the back of a female teen sitting on a dock wearing a one-piece swimsuit and jean shorts. The book cover sits on a light beige and pink-speckled background.

People

“The Forgotten Girls” of the American Ozarks

A new memoir takes a personal look at why today’s generation of rural, low-income Americans won’t live as long as their parents.

Image of the book cover “ ‘How not to kill yourself’ by Clancy Martin” on a grey-speckled background.

People

Author Clancy Martin on “How Not to Kill Yourself”

Novelist Clancy Martin describes how he’s coped with addiction, suicidal thinking, and survived ten suicide attempts.

The book cover for “Wonder Drug: The secret history of thalidomide in American and its hidden victims” by Jennifer Vanderbes on a yellow speckled background. The book cover is black and has a black and white photo of a toddler-aged girl in a dress with no arms. She uses her toys to play with a wooden toy.

“Wonder Drug” draws back the veil on thalidomide’s hidden American victims

Jennifer Vanderbes’s new book reexamines a dangerous drug’s impact in the U.S.

Book Cover for “Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder”. The cover is placed on a blue-speckled background.

Inside the Sisyphean crisis of homelessness

Author Tracy Kidder paints an empathic portrait of people experiencing homelessness and one man who chose to care for them—Dr. Jim O’Connell.

Gender & Health

Photo illustration: Three historical images are scattered on a piece of old, growing paper overlaid with the colors of the trans flag. The images from left to right: Nazi officials sort through a large pile of papers, pamphlets, books and photos scattered on the floor from the Institute for Sexual Science; participants in a Gay Pride parade from the 1970s hold signs of Joseph Stalin, Anita Bryant, the KKK and Idi Amin; a banner hangs across a large black wrought iron fence in New York City. The banner is rainbow-colored, has large flowers, and has an image of Marsha P Johnson smiling and holding a megaphone.

Essay

To protect gender-affirming care, we must learn from trans history

The current culture war isn’t the first time gender-affirming care has come under fire. It’s time to break the cycle.

Opinion

Women in global health are the labor, but not leaders. Time’s up.

A UN report says it’ll take 140 years for women to shatter the global health glass ceiling. We can’t afford to wait that long.

Illustration: Six diverse illustrated female figures, shoulder height and above, rest in six individual squares around an illustrated black and white globe. The composition is on a purple-speckled background with a coral-speckled fluid shape behind the earth.

People

Meet six women fighting to stop the global backslide on women’s rights

The women’s rights movement faces growing threats from rising authoritarianism around the world. These six women aren’t backing down.

Mental Health

Illustration: A child yellow sits on a swing, facing away from the viewer. They are wearing purple pants and shoes, and an orange shirt. The figure is in an organic green circular shape, and the background of the entire image is gray.

Ideas

U.S. kids face a mental health crisis – a bold new law points to a solution

Delaware seeks to transform mental health care with a first-in-the-nation law. A pediatric psychologist says it could provide vital support for children with mental health concerns.