In Perspective

By David Hebert and Torie Ludwin, communications managers
 
College costs a lot. Students are taking out a lot of debt – and what are they getting? AV Director of Higher Education Kelly McManus talks about what students should – and shouldn’t – expect from schools and programs.

What’s Happening: As awareness about the practices of predatory colleges grows — along with the understanding that students must graduate in order to benefit from their investment of time and tuition dollars — higher education policy is at a pivot point. 

In a video interview, McManus unpacks the issues and explains how data, accountability, and return on investment relate to student success in higher education.

What’s Next: With the passage of the College Transparency Act in the House and the Department of Education's current negotiated rulemaking on how federal student aid can be disbursed, there’s potential for movement on these important issues.
 
Watch the video >

By Juliana Keeping, communications manager
 
Sneha Dave is a 23-year-old activist who is using her own experiences with a chronic disease to empower other young people and push for lower drug prices through her advocacy organization, Generation Patient. It’s a fitting title. Dave is among those spearheading a new wave of patient advocacy.

What's Happening: Generation Patient refuses to accept a penny of big pharma money. Independence from industry leaves the group empowered to promote policy solutions on health affordability issues, such as lowering drug prices, without fear of repercussions or influence from industry funders.

Why it Matters: The drug industry has an outsized influence on major patient advocacy organizations, which creates conflicts of interest and constraints on critical drug pricing reforms. Via Generation Patient’s Health Policy Lab arm, Dave’s group is educating the next wave of activists about the policy landscape and federal and state initiatives to lower prescription drug prices. The push comes as states continue to build momentum toward policy solutions to lower drug prices, and federal lawmakers weigh sweeping reform measures, such as allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. 

Read the story >

By Rhiannon Meyers Collette, communications manager
 
As Black History Month comes to a close, 2022 has already given us many moments to celebrate and uplift Black excellence. Elana Meyers Taylor overcame COVID-19 to become the most decorated Black athlete in winter Olympics history. The cover of National Geographic for the first time portrayed a Black woman explorer, Tara Roberts, whose exploration of sunken slave ships helped humanize the brutality of the slave trade. The journalism world witnessed the birth of a new nonprofit news outlet, Capital B, devoted entirely to telling stories on Black life in America, adding a new chapter to the legacy of the Black press. And President Biden just nominated a former public defender for the Supreme Court. If confirmed, Ketanji Brown Jackson would become the first Black woman to serve on the nation's highest court.

It's important to celebrate the myriad ways Black individuals have shaped U.S. history, culture, and innovation. But it's also necessary that we reflect on the realities that shape Black life in America today. 

What’s Happening: Systemic inequities continue to inflict damage on the health and well-being of people of color in the United States. Black individuals are disproportionately harmed by a flawed organ donation system. Black patients are more likely to be targeted by hospital lawsuits. Predatory, for-profit institutions often target Black students, leaving them with debt and worthless degrees. The criminal justice system has failed Black men, women, and children again and again and again. It’s possible — and imperative — to celebrate Black History Month while not losing sight of just how far we still need to go to rectify our society’s failures.

Join the Conversation: If you follow along on Twitter, you’ll see that this year’s #BlackHistoryMonth’s theme is Black health and wellness. To us, that looks like working to forge an equitable criminal justice system, create an affordable health care system, and build accountable policing, higher education, and organ procurement systems. Join the conversation with us on Twitter and learn more about AV’s work to change the systems that harm communities of color.

Criminal Justice

• In the thick of the “Great Resignation” labor shortage, there is a large and untapped talent pool – people with criminal records, reports Governing. 
  
  Dive Deeper: AV reported last week on the deep toll criminal convictions are having on people’s ability to get hired, citing a first-of-its-kind study by RAND.
   
• Three former Minneapolis police officers were found guilty of violating George Floyd’s civil rights when they failed to stop former officer Derek Chauvin.
   
• Researchers in New Jersey take a closer look at how people perceive news about gun violence and how that perception is based on the information’s source.
   
• An Orange County task force looking at the issue of domestic violence says officials must address the barriers that survivors face when they seek help.

Health 

• A federal judge struck down a critical piece of the No Surprises Act to establish a fair arbitration process for determining out-of-network payment rates under the law. “Based on evidence from the states, yesterday’s decision will make health care more expensive for consumers and employers and only serves to benefit providers who are focused on protecting their profits,” said Mark E. Miller, AV's executive vice president of health care.
   
• The cost of ambulance rides is soaring, Axios reports, reaching an average of $758 for someone with private insurance in 2020. Ground ambulances aren’t covered by the No Surprises Act, meaning patients are still on the hook for big bills.
  
  Related: There is currently no federal law that protects consumers form “surprise” bills from out-of-network ground ambulance providers. This white paper from Fair Health explains the impact.
   
• A $35 per month cap on the price of insulin is part of a bill being proposed by Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock. STAT News takes a look at the bill’s odds of becoming law.
   
• In a new Health Affairs Forefront series on Medicare and Medicaid Integration, Laura Keohane and Ann Hwang discuss the proposed rule from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services that will affect care and coverage for approximately 4 million dually eligible individuals. AV supports the series.
   
• Guttmacher released survey results this week showing the negative impacts of COVID-19 on reproductive health care access.

Higher Education

• With news that the Biden administration will forgive $415 million in student loans for victims of for-profit schools that cheated students, ABC 15 News in Phoenix points out how predatory schools continue to take advantage of veterans to access their GI Bill education money. 
   
• The Center for American Progress gives a clear overview of school and program accreditation via the NACIQI, which met this week to review applications.

Also

• Elon Musk reportedly donated almost $6 billion, but when will the money actually reach either charitable organizations or individuals in need? The high-dollar donation is once again casting a spotlight on the use of donor-advised funds (DAFs) and the lack of any deadline for actually dispersing those tax-free dollars. Groups like the Initiative to Accelerate Charitable Giving are calling for a maximum timeline of 15 years.
   
• According to a new analysis by FairVote and Ranked Choice Voting for Texas, the outdated and unnecessary Texas primary voting system increased the cost of 2020 elections by approximately $6.4 million statewide (that's more than 100 teacher salaries).

Speaking of Black History Month, HBO is offering an insightful look into the life of one of our country’s most famous anti-slavery activists. "Frederick Douglass: In Five Speeches," which premiered Feb. 23, was inspired by David Blight’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom." The film draws from five of Douglass’ legendary speeches to represent a different moment in the tumultuous history of 19^th-century America as well as a different stage of Douglass’ long and celebrated life.

Tradeoffs takes a peek behind the curtain into prescription drug user fees – legislation that Congress must pass this year to keep the U.S. Food and Drug Administration running. Anytime a pharmaceutical or medical device company applies for an FDA review, they are required to pay a “user fee” which supports the FDA. Prescription drug user fees reached $1.1 billion in 2021. In this episode, Tradeoffs dives deep into FDA user fees, the controversy that surrounds them, and how this must-pass legislation can crack open the door for policymakers to push through other health care reforms.

• If you feel compelled to help Ukraine, the Los Angeles Times and KSAT rounded up lists of ways to assist.
   
• Get a vast and inspiring view of the world with these top picks from a global competition for landscape photography.

The Criminal Justice and Evidence-Based Policy teams at Arnold Ventures are teaming up to learn more about what works in criminal justice reform in an ongoing request for proposals for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that will test programs and practices. There is no deadline for submissions.

The Evidence-Based Policy team invites grant applications to conduct randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of social programs in any area of U.S. policy. Details are here.

View all of our RFPs here.