Bunk Rooms Climb the Social Ladder

This article is part of our latest Design special report, about homes for multiple generations and new definitions of family. The bunk bed, born two centuries ago as an austerity measure, is living in some splendor. For country homes, luxury hotels and yachts, architects and designers are theming and decking out the basic components of…

Covid Medical Bills Are About to Get Bigger

Americans will most likely pay significantly more for Covid medical care during this new wave of cases — whether that’s a routine coronavirus test or a lengthy hospitalization. Earlier in the pandemic, most major health insurers voluntarily waived costs associated with a Covid treatment. Patients didn’t have to pay their normal co-payments or deductibles for…

Texas Abortion Law: Questions and Answers

A Texas law banning most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy went into effect on Wednesday, despite the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established a constitutional right to the procedure, making the state the most restrictive in the nation in terms of access to abortion services. Other states have passed similar laws, but those…

When Will the Delta Surge End?

The United States has entered the fourth wave of the pandemic — or fifth, depending on which expert you ask. As the vaccination campaign lags and the contagious Delta variant spreads, cases and hospitalizations are at their highest since last winter. Covid-19 deaths, too, are on a steady incline. After every other peak has come…

Purdue Pharma Is Dissolved and Sacklers Pay $4.5 Billion to Settle Opioid Claims

Purdue Pharma, the maker of the highly addictive painkiller OxyContin, was dissolved on Wednesday in a wide-ranging bankruptcy settlement that will require the company’s owners, members of the Sackler family, to turn over billions of dollars of their fortune to address the deadly opioid epidemic. But the agreement includes a much-disputed condition: It largely absolves…