Planning, Policy and Design’s Urban Planning Program Ranked Fifth in the West
The UC Irvine Department of Planning, Policy and Design’s urban planning graduate program has not only been ranked 16th overall among 90 programs in the United States and Canada, but also fifth in the United States by Planetizen, a national urban planning and development network, as well as ninth for transportation planning and second for public health.
PPD, which competes with other planning programs in higher-ranked Association of American University campuses, is also the youngest of the top 20 planning programs in the Planetizen ranking, 16 of which are also in AAU universities.
California Children Receive Healthcare Through For-Profit Groups
The answer to providing healthcare to eligible California children, who are among the 6.5 million uninsured residents, is insurance brokers and other for-profit groups, according to a recent UC Irvine study conducted by Mireille Jacobson, assistant professor of planning, policy and design.
Jacobson evaluated an incentive program that began in 1998, which encouraged for-profit and non-profit groups to help enroll children in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program or Medicaid. The incentive program paid the organization $25 to $50 for every person it helped enroll or re-enroll in the state health care programs. Under the program, enrollment of children under SCHIP or Medicaid programs increased and dropped after 2003 when the state stopped its funding. At the time, the incentive program was consuming less than one percent of the Health Families budget.
The program significantly helped for-profit organizations ‘reach out to families
