The Politics of Poetry

By Adrienne Faraci, Communications Manager

 

When Zac Talbott started methadone treatment for his opioid addiction, he had to travel two hours each direction every day, seven days a week, to pick up his medication from a clinic.

Indeed, regulatory obstacles — many of which are set by states and vary wildly — can cause people to drop out of treatment or avoid it entirely. Since ongoing medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) with either methadone or buprenorphine is the only treatment proven to cut the death rate from opioid addiction by 50% or more, these barriers can be fatal.

 

What’s Happening: In December the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple University Beasley School of Law launched two new databases to help researchers, legislators, policymakers, and patients navigate the rules and restrictions governing how they can receive their treatment. The group wanted to create these databases to illustrate how varying restrictions in states could cause a rethink of how people access life-saving medications.

 

Bottom Line: “We want to understand, ‘Are the laws actually working? Are the laws having good, bad, or unintended effects on health outcomes?’” says Lindsay Cloud of Temple University Beasley School of Law. Researchers are hopeful that shining a light on the many legal and health system obstacles preventing patients from receiving these medications can help dispel misinformation, support repeals of harmful regulations, and save lives.

Read the story >

…to reform health care in 2021. Health care affordability is a top concern this year as COVID-19 continues to rampage the nation and a national economic slowdown strains budgets for households, states, and the federal government. There are a number of ways the Biden administration can address the key drivers of our unsustainably high health care prices, and we are especially interested in efforts to lower drug prices and tackle anticompetitive behavior. But we are also closely watching reform movement in states, where attempts to rein in health care costs and spending have been gaining traction in recent years. One idea worth watching: a public option that could constrain costs and expand coverage. Read the story >

...to combat the worsening opioid epidemic. Last month, the CDC reported 81,230 overdose deaths from May 2019–May 2020, the largest number of opioid-related deaths ever recorded in a 12-month period. The opioid epidemic is not only costing lives, but hundreds of billions of dollars, stemming from a combination of health care expenses, criminal justice costs, and lost productivity. With access to in-person treatment services limited and states buckling under economic pressure, it’s all the more important for the federal government to devote resources to improving outcomes for people with opioid use disorder (OUD), their families, and communities. Arnold Ventures' opioid team offers insights into how the next administration can respond to this critical public health crisis. Read the story >

“Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy,” a Netflix documentary whose title says it all. This tale of greed, indifference, and devastation is split into eight chapters that recount the introduction of cocaine and crack into this country and put a critical lens on how pop culture, media, and politics criminalized what was essentially a health care issue. Its presentation is spotty at times (the film uses a lot of the same kinds of imagery that it later condemns) but eventually it nails the point: This era was a lesson in how not to make policy. 

 

Also: Holly Harris of Justice Action Network talking with Renee Shaw and guests on Kentucky Tonight about bipartisan cooperation and finding common ground in a politically fraught era. “We have real challenges in this country, and we need to work together to solve them,” says Harris. “It has nothing to do with being a Republican or a Democrat, it has to do with being an American… and I believe that America is resilient and we’ll get back to a place where we can talk to each other again.”

This 1A episode on the future of ranked-choice voting, which is gaining traction as more cities and states explore its use. Guests including Rob Richie of FairVote explain how ranked-choice voting works to build more diverse coalitions — and how well it’s working on the ground in communities that have adopted the reform. “The very action of giving voters the right to rank...means that candidates have a direct electoral incentive to engage with more people.”

 

Related: Alaska is showing us how to end toxic partisanship in our political system through top four primary elections and ranked choice voting, via USA Today.

• The best memes from the inauguration — and the unexpected story behind Bernie Sanders' mittens.
   
• ICYMI: "Celebrating America" included performances by Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters, Katy Perry,  and more. 
   
• This message of unity from three U.S. presidents.
   
• On a personal note, I surprised my children and adopted a puppy. I highly recommend it as a way to redirect any anxious and exhausted energy into pure joy. And apparently I am not alone: Shelters are running out of animals.

Our Complex Care team is funding research into how to improve the systems that deliver care to a population of more than 12 million people who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. They are seeking to fund researchers who are guided by the following principles: policy relevance, rigor and independence, and alignment with our strategy. Learn more here.

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.

Also: The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research has issued a new request for proposals (RFP) for rigorous research that will produce evidence to support development of fair and effective gun policies. Learn more here.