Featured Commentary category, Page 82

Nationwide, health insurance participation in the Affordable Care Act’s individual market is growing and increased competition is helping drive down consumer premiums. In Pennsylvania, UPMC Health Plan is one of eight health insurance providers offering affordable coverage options to more than 400,000 enrollees in 2022. Through the covid-19 special enrollment...

Ron Hextall, the Pittsburgh Penguins’ general manager, holds the 21st overall pick in the upcoming National Hockey League entry draft to be held July 7 . This pick gives him the opportunity to add outstanding hockey prospects. Pittsburgh has not been particularly effective with its selections, with 2015 the last...

The day I sat in my psychiatrist’s windowless office and was told I had bipolar disorder, I’d already been in the mental health system for 25 years. It was my sixth diagnosis. Starting at age 12, I’d also been told I had anorexia, generalized anxiety disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive...

Children growing up in more disadvantaged neighborhoods — meaning those with poor housing quality, more poverty, and lower levels of employment and education — show observable increases in brain activity when viewing emotional faces on a screen, according to our team’s new study. But importantly, we found that this association...

The editorial “Funding formula is PaSSHE pipe dream” (June 20, TribLIVE) is built on a misunderstanding of a new formula to distribute state funds among the state-owned universities. The editorial suggests the formula isn’t viable without an increase in state funding. While the formula and funding are separate issues, to...

The status of our state and national economy is at the forefront of many people’s concerns as they go out to spend their hard-earned money to purchase the necessities of life. As such, a realistic assessment of our economic picture today and tomorrow is crucial to understanding where our priorities...

Pittsburgh, like any major city, has its share of historical heroes and villains. Our heroes include Andrew Carnegie, Fred Rogers and August Wilson. The bad guys (and women) include racketeer Tony Grosso and jailbreak accomplice Kate Soffel. Historic preservation is one way that we tell our city’s stories using the...

So let’s move on to another extremely important subject in modern society. Climate change was originally known as global warming. But as the real science measurements failed to show the expected rise in global temperatures, the name was changed. But the ferocity of its adherents has not diminished. No doubt,...

Ten years ago, President Obama created the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program to protect the Dreamers and give them an opportunity to work and go to school without fear of deportation. This vitally important program has changed the lives of nearly 830,000 Dreamers and their families across the...

Recently, I was sitting in the cafe of a large chain grocery store when two employees walked by. One of them must have been training the other one because he said to his colleague, “You saw how crazy things were for Mother’s Day? How we sold out of flowers?” The...

A handful of countries, most notably Australia, impose mandatory voting, with citizens facing fines and punishments if they don’t appear at the polls. And every few years, somebody proposes bringing this practice to the United States as a good-government reform that allegedly would improve the health of our democracy. Luckily,...

In our book “100% Democracy: The Case for Universal Voting,” E.J. Dionne and I make a case for universal voting — that voting should be a required civic duty for every American citizen. Universal voting could be enacted federally or — more likely — by states or municipalities. If adopted,...

I am from gun safety future, and Republicans, you’re in trouble. For more than 40 years, you have successfully avoided talking about this issue as fatalities and injuries climbed and as firearms became deadlier. With the help of the National Rifle Association, you declared any form of regulation a dire...

America was once capable of transformational projects — the Erie Canal, transcontinental railroads and Interstate Highway System. President Joe Biden says the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is a “monumental step” that will create millions of jobs, but that’s quite an exaggeration. The American Society of Civil Engineers...

“Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, with Alabama in between,” political strategist James Carville once said. This quote usually irritates the good citizens of Pittsburgh, who dislike being put in the same category as what they view as the trash-talking, Eagles-loving, cheese-steak-eating barbarians from the east; they identify with the more...

The impacts of Putin’s bungled war in Ukraine have been severe and reach far beyond the borders of Eastern Europe. The world’s economy, energy supply and food markets have been upended by a conflict that has snowballed into a humanitarian disaster. For too long, our European allies have relied on...

The House Jan. 6 Committee began a series of prime-time hearings last week. For the past 11 months, Rep. Liz Cheney has been the face and the voice of the committee. Like the Greek goddess of retribution, Nemesis, she has brought down her hammer on former President Trump and the...

The Biden administration has responded forcefully to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both in terms of the attention paid to the conflict and the resources devoted to supporting that nation. This was evidenced most recently by the passage of the administration’s proposal for a massive $40 billion aid package for...

The U.S. military has its hands full at the moment with a vicious war in Ukraine and U.S.-China tensions over issues from human rights to sovereignty over the South China Sea. But it cannot delay taking action to address climate change, the most persistent strategic threat we face. As a...

Today, the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol holds the first of several public hearings. The committee aims to lay out the results of months of investigative work into the involvement of President Donald Trump and his political allies in the 2021...

“Medicare for All” is back. For the fifth time in the last decade-plus, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has introduced legislation that would launch a government takeover of the U.S. health insurance system. “Health care is a human right, not a privilege,” he insisted from the Senate floor May 12. But...

Travelers shop online for short-term vacation rentals. They browse listings, compare rates and make inquiries on sites like Airbnb — sometimes from thousands of miles away. Nobody needs a brick-and-mortar office to close a deal. Sally Ladd, who managed five short-term rental properties in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains, worked remotely without...

Much of what has been said about Justice Samuel Alito’s draft majority decision striking down the constitutional guarantee for abortion is simply false. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett did not lie during their confirmation hearings. They stated Roe (1973) and Casey (1992) — which established a...

If anyone wonders what the airport of the future might look like, the Pittsburgh International Airport is a great example. For that, we must applaud the imaginative Allegheny County Airport Authority. It is taking two related paths to showcase how Pennsylvania’s second-largest airport can protect the environment while also raising...

Mrs. Bird didn’t speak a word of English in our first day of seventh-grade French. It’s one thing to sign up for a language that celebrates pastries and bicycle races, but it’s another thing to feel totally lost. Such was my plight for the first week of French. But I...