Health /
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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Protection for whom?
Insurance decisions have consequences. We find out whose.
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Property /
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.
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Industry /
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.
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Flood And Disaster /
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FEMA's flood maps are decades out of date.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.
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Health /
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.
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Health /
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.
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Industry /
We Solved Insurance in 1752 and Then Forgot
Benjamin Franklin's mutual insurance model worked for two centuries. Then Wall Street got involved.
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