An Analysis of the Distribution of Cost-Sharing Levels in Individual and Small-Group Coverage

Based on surveys of the individual and small-group insurance market, examines the distribution of purchasers of each type of coverage among various deductibles. Outlines median coinsurances, annual out-of-pocket maximums, and copayments for each level

Is a Higgs Vacuum Instability Fatal for High-Scale Inflation?

We study the inflationary evolution of a scalar field $h$ with an unstable potential for the case where the Hubble parameter $H$ during inflation is larger than the instability scale $\Lambda_I$ of the potential. Quantum fluctuations in the field of size $\delta h \sim \frac{H}{2 \pi}$ imply that the unstable part of the potential is sampled during inflation. We investigate the evolution of these fluctuations to the unstable regime, and in particular whether they generate cosmological defects or even terminate inflation. We apply the results of a toy scalar model to the case of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson, whose quartic evolves to negative values at high scales, and extend previous analyses of Higgs dynamics during inflation utilizing statistical methods to a perturbative and fully gauge-invariant formulation. We show that the dynamics are controlled by the renormalization group-improved quartic coupling $\lambda(\mu)$ evaluated at a scale $\mu = H$, such that Higgs fluctuations are enhanced by the instability if $H > \Lambda_I$. Even if $H > \Lambda_I$, the instability in the SM Higgs potential does not end inflation; instead the universe slowly sloughs off crunching patches of space that never come to dominate the evolution. As inflation proceeds past 50 $e$-folds, a significant proportion of patches exit inflation in the unstable vacuum, and as much as 1% of the spacetime can rapidly evolve to a defect. Depending on the nature of these defects, however, the resulting universe could still be compatible with ours.Comment: 31 pages, 3 figures; v2: references added, journal versio

A Defense of the Electoral College in the Age of Trump

In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, where Donald J. Trump lost the popular vote by nearly 3 million votes but still secured victory in the Electoral College, renewed efforts to delegitimize or abolish the Electoral College system have surfaced. Critics, calling for a direct national vote for President, attacked the legitimacy of the election and decried the Constitution’s method of presidential selection as antiquated and undemocratic. Some legal scholars even suggested that the Electoral College must be abolished to disentangle it from America’s racist past and history of slavery. Recently, though, reformers in several States have banded together to promote a pact known as the National Popular Vote initiative, an interstate agreement that would assign a State’s electoral votes to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote and would go into effect as soon as legislation is passed in a sufficient number of states to constitute an electoral majority. In this Essay, I respond to current criticisms of the Electoral College by providing a historical perspective on the Framers’ decision-making throughout the drafting and ratification process and discuss how the Electoral College’s roots in federalism still remain relevant today. Ultimately, I caution against an overreaction to the 2016 election despite the Electoral College’s failure to filter out a candidate such as Trump. I argue that the alternative to the Electoral College—a system of direct election that would not benefit from the state structure to dissipate and diffuse rash popular movements—could be even more deleterious to American democracy, as it presents a far higher risk of electing a demagogue and falling prey to the tyranny of the majority