The opioid crisis is increasingly affecting older Americans. To start, the prevalence of opioid use disorder is rising rapidly among Medicare beneficiaries 65 and older. Older Americans are also experiencing the social impacts of opioid addiction: An estimated 2.6 million grandparents are helping to raise the children of parents who are unable to care for them because of substance use.
Yesterday, RAND's Bradley Stein testified about these issues before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. He outlined a range of policy options that Congress might consider. For example, expanding public health insurance coverage for nonmedication therapies could help reduce the use of opioids for pain management.
Measures such as these could help the millions of older Americans affected by opioid addiction. More broadly, such actions could improve health care for a growing elderly population with complex needs.
The U.S. power grid needs an upgrade: At least 70 percent of transmission lines are more than 25 years old, and large investments are required to simply maintain reliability standards. Further, says RAND's Ismael Arciniegas Rueda, revitalizing the grid is critical to ensuring that the United States can maintain a technological edge over China. This is largely because of the growing power needs of energy-intensive technologies like AI. But increasing America's power capacity won't be easy. Barriers include sourcing critical hardware, fielding a skilled labor force in engineering and project management, and executing infrastructure “megaprojects.”
The California County Resentencing Pilot Program was created to encourage prosecutors to reconsider sentences given to some people in state prison. The three-year project, which involved nine counties, illustrates one way that states are investing in strategies to reduce the sizes of prison populations—with the aim of both protecting public safety and reining in corrections spending. RAND researchers evaluated the program and found that a modest number of people have been resentenced. But improvements are needed to ensure that more cases can be reviewed.
“Blockship attacks” obstruct key waterways by deliberately sinking ships, running them aground, or crashing them into infrastructure. A new RAND report examines this threat.
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