Public and Population Health
What are MOUD? In this blog, we explore Medications for Opioid Use Disorder, reviewing a definition for OUD, a list of currently approved MOUD, how these medications work, and current barriers for their access and use.
Each year, SHADAC uses data released from the American Community Survey (ACS) via the U.S. Census Bureau's data.census.gov tool to produce estimates of uninsurance at the state and county level.
In this blog, SHADAC experts answer: what are opioids? This blog provides a review of common opioids, explaining how their chemistry and how they work in the body are foundational to the evolution of the opioid crisis.
What is Medicaid, exactly? Who is eligible? How is Medicaid funded? And why does Medicaid vary from state to state? In honor of Medicaid’s 60th anniversary, this blog walks through the origins of the Medicaid program, how Medicaid is funded, and how its flexibility supports innovation.
This issue of gaps in care for teen health and young adults was the focus of a recent research study by SHADAC Research Fellow Robert Hest and SHADAC co-founder Kathleen Call published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
Housing affordability is a key social determinant of health. Housing and health are connected – in this blog, we take a look at housing affordability in the U.S. by state and subpopulation.
In May 2025, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) partnered with SHADAC on a survey to assess how Minnesotans perceive the Minnesota Medicaid program (known as Medical Assistance in Minnesota). You can read the details of the survey and our findings in this blog.
SHADAC has compiled this blog filled with mental health data and resources. First, we’ll review some mental health survey data sources you could consider using for your own research on mental health in the United States. Then, we’ll review a sample of relevant blogs, publications, and resources.
This Basics Blog explores health care costs and affordability by defining key terms and summarizing how some of the most recent state-level household surveys are asking health care consumers about these topics.
Accurate estimates of uninsured rates (the percentage of people that do not have insurance coverage, also referred to as uninsurance) are important in understanding trends and the impacts of actions, events, or shifts in the economic landscape that may affect health insurance coverage. Learn more… Read more