The Century Foundation

A big change is coming to the Parent PLUS loan program this summer: borrowers taking out loans for the 2026–27 school year and beyond will no longer qualify for Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR), the lone safety net program that has been available to parent-borrowers. The new policy, part of Congress’s 2025 reconciliation law, makes the loan program riskier for families’ long-term financial health.

On June 23, TCF President Julie Margetta Morgan offered expert testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. At the hearing, titled “The Affordability Agenda,” Morgan presented The Century Foundation’s recent groundbreaking work on ordinary Americans’ battles with soaring cost of living and debt burdens.

Most Americans have health coverage through private (also called “commercial”) insurance. The prices for healthcare paid by private insurance are significantly higher than those of public programs and in other nations. At the same time, private insurance premiums continue to skyrocket, with dire consequences for Americans’ financial security. These eight charts clarify some of the recent trends in healthcare pricing.

For the past year, The Century Foundation has documented how American families are falling further and further behind financially—from skipped meals and , to mounting balances on utility bills, student loans, credit cards, and auto loans. Our new polling confirms why for many, healthcare has become the leading edge of the cost-of-living crisis, the clearest issue where voters’ patience with the status quo has run out.

Download the Beyond the Axis PDF Overview: Hubs, Spokes, and Worldwide Webs In February 2026, the United States and Israel launched a war on Iran that they hoped would once and for all break the back of the Islamic Republic and its so-called Axis of Resistance.

As Americans’ concerns about healthcare affordability climb, the U.S. Congress, on a bipartisan basis, is blaming health insurance companies seeking profits. This concern is valid, especially regarding insurers that have bought the healthcare providers that they are supposedly negotiating with for lower prices. Consolidation such as this typically leads to higher prices in healthcare, as this report explains.

Why have Iran and its “Axis of Resistance” proven so durable in the face of waves of military and economic warfare, and what does this mean for the future of the Middle East? On Monday, June 22 at 11:00 AM ET, we will present findings from Beyond the Axis, a major new Century International report that investigates how and why Iran and its allies were able to reconstitute so quickly in the wars that began in October 2023.

Introduction Students in the foster system are a significantly undersupported student group by both the child welfare and education systems. When looking at available data in New York specifically, these students consistently face an uphill battle in their education that has little to do with their ability to learn and everything to do with a lack of appropriate attention and support.

Today, maternal health outcomes are as disturbing and inequitable as they were more than a decade ago. This isn’t for lack of effort from advocates or providers, but because the American maternity care system is inherently flawed. Corporations and profits are prioritized over individuals’ healthcare experiences and outcomes. The United States needs a new system that prioritizes people and guarantees moms and families easily accessible, affordable, high-quality maternal healthcare.

Since January 2025, the Trump administration and Congress have advanced a series of policies that are wreaking havoc on our health care systems, and will be especially damaging for maternal and child health. These include nearly in Medicaid cuts over the next decade, the program that covers 40 percent of U.S. births; drastic changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); hamstringing the and roll-out of immunizations; and making maternal and reproductive care comprehensive.