Federal law says that “any individual eligible for medical assistance” from a state Medicaid program may obtain that care “from any institution, agency, community pharmacy, or person, qualified to perform the service or services required.” In other words, all Medicaid patients have a right to choose their doctor, as long as they choose a health […]

Factory farming is a particularly wicked problem to solve. It’s a moral atrocity, involving the confinement and slaughter of hundreds of billions of animals globally each year. It’s a blight on the environment. It’s terrible for slaughterhouse workers, many of whom suffer from PTSD, anxiety, or depression. Yet factory farming produces something almost everyone wants […]

The MAGA movement has a particular vision of the ideal American family. For starters, there are lots of kids. There’s a dad who works a manufacturing job to provide for them financially. And, according to many influential figures on the right, there’s a stay-at-home mom who holds it all together. Prominent Republicans from Vice President […]

In small US towns, emergency fire and ambulance first responder agencies are still mostly staffed by volunteers — a practice that was put in place in the 1970s and 1980s. But these volunteers are increasingly older, with fewer young people signing up than in previous decades. Higher cost of living and a diminishing rural population […]

This story originally appeared in Kids Today, Vox’s newsletter about kids, for everyone. Sign up here for future editions. Birthdays are supposed to be fun. You eat cake, you open presents, maybe you have a party. They can also, however, become a source of pressure and anxiety. And for many teens today, birthdays are a time when […]