Women’s Suffrage Writ Large, Irrationality Reigns in Health Care

COVID-19 is putting up serious barriers to birth control — at a time when many women, hesitant to have children amid a pandemic, are seeking it out. (Despite stay-at-home orders, evidence and history point to a baby bust, not boom.) Many women don’t want to expose themselves or their families to the virus by going to a doctor’s office, millions of Americans have lost their employer-based health insurance along with their jobs, and out of pocket costs are putting some traditional methods out of reach. 

Bottom line: “[COVID-19 has] really exposed the barriers to care and fault lines in our system that already existed, particularly for certain communities, low-income communities, and communities of color,” says Jamille Fields Allsbrook, Director of Women’s Health and Rights at the Center for American Progress.

What can be done: Telehealth is trying to fill the gap, but we need to open more channels to reproductive health care during the pandemic, including pharmacist-prescribed birth control and investing in family planning providers to fill in service gaps. 

• San Francisco, as it becomes the first county in the nation to provide free calls to jail inmates, ending the practice of generating revenue from incarcerated people and their families and lifting an economic burden from low-income communities. Kudos to our grantee Financial Justice Project for facilitating this reform.
   

• Advocates calling for Congress to pass legislation as part of the next coronavirus relief package that would significantly lower the in-state phone call rates for people who are incarcerated. Nearly 80,000 citizens signed on to support the initiative, showing that national momentum to at least reduce the costs of phone calls for families is growing.
   

• Iowa, whose governor recently signed an executive order restoring voting rights to those with felony convictions who have completed their sentences — without requiring their fines, fees or restitution be paid first. (The fines and fees issue has derailed a similar reform in Florida.) And congrats to grantee Fines and Fees Justice Center for their work on this important reform.

By Rhiannon Meyers Collette

You knew health care was expensive, but did you know that commercial insurers pay on average 122 percent of what Medicare pays for the same services? A new report by the renowned Health Care Cost Institute, supported by AV, injects some fresh data into the national conversation about health care prices — and what they found underscores the irrationality of the way we pay for care in this country.

Why it matters: The big variation between commercial rates and Medicare rates raises some serious questions about whether the health care market is truly functioning. It’s especially concerning because research has shown time and again that higher prices do not correlate with better quality care or better outcomes for patients.

What’s next: The pandemic and the ensuing national economic crisis has created a new urgency for policymakers to finally do something to lower health care costs at the state and national level.

By Rhiannon Meyers Collette

President Trump’s “Buy American” executive order is aimed at reducing U.S. dependence on foreign drug manufacturing, but the rule’s potential impacts are unclear — and the mandate could actually increase prices for patients, taxpayers, and employers.

Why it matters: The order is not intended to lower drug prices but rather to remedy some of the drug supply chain problems that have bubbled to the surface during the pandemic. But there are many unknowns: Can American suppliers produce enough supply to meet demand? Will we alienate trade partners? How will this affect drug prices? Early consensus is that the rule would most likely raise costs at a time when Americans are struggling amid the dual blow of national economic crisis and the pandemic. AV Health Care Manager Kevin Love breaks it all down.

This wide-ranging discussion on bipartisan criminal justice reform (and beagles) with Justice Action Network Executive Director Holly Harris on the The Disruption Zone podcast. She brings the shocking statistics: 

• The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population and 20 percent of the world’s incarcerated people because we’ve criminalized so much behavior rather than turning to treatment and other rehabilitative options that lead to better outcomes: “We went way too far in this country… I just don’t think it was a data-driven approach, and we now have the benefit of so much data that shows alternatives to incarceration works for low-level, non-violent offenders.” 
   

• Just under 500,000 of the 10.3 million arrests in 2018 in America were for violent offenses: “We’re talking about a nation that immediately takes low-level, nonviolent offenses and makes them a part of our justice system, and perhaps we need to be looking at other avenues.”
   

• And reform makes communities safer: “The states that have most significantly reduced incarceration through the reforms that we work on have seen an average drop in their crime rates of roughly 19 percent. Conversely, the 10 states that have most significantly increased their incarceration rates through the old ‘lock ’em up and throw away the key’ policies of the ’80s and ’90s only saw an average drop in their crime rate of 11 percent.”