To determine how much the United States can rely on its network of allies and partners, researchers compared global networks of diplomatic, military, and economic elements of national power in 1989, 2000, and 2017 on a variety of factors.

Models have been widely used to inform policymakers about the implications of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the effects of policy responses to it. The authors of this report reviewed available models and the relevant literature to produce a framework for assessing a model's suitability for policymakers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Virginia's government first announced the presence of a COVID-19 case on March 7, 2020. The first interventions were put in place with only a few dozen confirmed cases having been reported, and Virginia had just over 1,000 confirmed cases when the stay-at-home order was implemented. When assessing whether a model is suitable for informing policy, it is important to consider whether the data being used are relevant, whether the model design is appropriate, how the model has performed in the past, and the degree of transparency in the model. In this report, the authors examine assessment criteria for early-stage and late-stage models, taking into account the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on behavior, policy, health outcomes, and the economy.

The authors of this report investigate an alternative health care financing approach, the 10Plan, for the nearly 28 million individuals who are not covered by health insurance and the approximately 20 million individuals who purchase private coverage in the nongroup health insurance market, including on the Affordable Care Act exchanges. The 10Plan, designed by Mark Cuban, would eliminate the need for traditional health insurance for these individuals and allow them to pay only for the healthcare services that they use, and then at Medicare prices. The 10Plan is called the "10" Plan because most participants will not pay more than 10 percent of their family's income on repayment premiums. To protect participants from financial uncertainty stemming from healthcare events that are high-cost or beyond participants' abilities to afford, participants in the 10Plan would be able to defer payments after a $25 copay for each encounter. In the case of deferred payments, participants would be borrowing from the federal government at a 3-percent interest rate. In this analysis, the authors built a microsimulation model to estimate how much the 10Plan would cost participating individuals and families and what portion of the cost would be shouldered by the federal government. The authors also examine cases in which individuals could be negatively affected by the 10Plan's implementation.

As of August 24, 2020, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had resulted in the deaths of approximately 2,500 Virginians. The 2020 hurricane season began June 1 and is considered to be extremely active. The threat of the pandemic increases the complexity of risk management decisions during the hurricane season. In this report, the authors study the implications that a hurricane during the COVID-19 pandemic would have for the Commonwealth of Virginia. This analysis should help inform advance planning for the hurricane season in general and could be used in response to a specific storm with an estimated track through Virginia. The authors focus on the combined impacts of COVID-19 and a hurricane on morbidity and mortality; they do not examine other effects, such as effects on infrastructure, social networks, and the economy.