Health Care Workforce Reform: COVID-19 Spotlights Need for Changes to Clinician Licensing

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Making quality health care as affordable and accessible as possible requires both ensuring that clinicians have adequate training for the services they provide and avoiding education and training requirements that unnecessarily increase prices. The COVID-19 pandemic has made it clear that government licensing of health professionals blocks access to care. In a new paper, Cato scholars Shirley Svorny and Michael F. Cannon argue that a system in which states recognize third‐​party organizations that certify the competence of health professionals would be a better solution than direct government licensing.

Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share

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A new Cato national survey finds that self‐​censorship is on the rise in the United States. Nearly two-thirds—62%—of Americans say the political climate these days prevents them from saying things they believe because others might find them offensive. The share of Americans who self‐​censor has risen several points since 2017 when 58% of Americans agreed with this statement.

How Property and Civil Rights Help Forest Tribes Modernize and Prosper: Lessons from India

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Much has been written on the adverse impact of modernization on historically isolated forest tribes of India. Studies have listed the devastation of tribes’ traditional cultures and lifestyles, the duping of simple tribespeople with little understanding of markets or prices, the destruction of their habitat, and the trauma of displacement, which has been greatest in the case of dams and mining projects. In a new paper, Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar and Neeraj Kaushal show that tribes can join mainstream society and prosper if empowered with property rights and civil rights.

Civil Liberties vs. Federal Cops in Portland

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In recent days the Department of Homeland Security has dispatched federal law enforcement officers to Portland, scene of more than 50 consecutive nights of protests. As genuine as the problem of violence and disorder in Portland may be, some of the practices being alleged are simply not acceptable ways for the American government to act and, if proven, should not be allowed to stand. Americans won’t, and shouldn’t, put up with anonymous, arbitrary, and unaccountable police behavior.