Category: Uncategorized

Pankovits for Medium: Shocking Violence in Denver Re-Opens the School Resource Officer Debate

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Tressa Pankovits

George Floyd’s reprehensible murder put in motion a long overdue reckoning over police violence in communities of color. More can and should be done to rectify eons of systemic abuse. However, not every measure taken thus far has been wise, including removing School Resource Officers who are charged with keeping the peace in and around school buildings.

Last week, a 17-year-old student shot two deans at Denver’s East High School. The student fired multiple rounds as the deans physically patted him down — precisely to discover whether or not he was armed. This raises several questions.

First, why was the student patted down in the first place? Denver Public Schools (DPS) Superintendent Alex Marrero revealed — likely in violation of the minor gunman’s Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) rights — that he was subject to a “safety agreement” that required him to be searched at the beginning of each school day. An investigation by a local ABC News station revealed that the search protocol is part of DPS’ “Discipline Matrix,” which measures student misconduct at different levels of severity. The document begins, “You make a difference in breaking historical patterns of inequity! Disrupt bias, fight disproportionality, and apply the Discipline Matrix in anti-racist and trauma-informed manner.”

Read more in Medium.

PPI Applauds North Carolina Medicaid Expansion Passage

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

North Carolina has officially become the 40th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which is expected to be implemented in 2024 after the state budget is approved, likely this summer. Once implemented, an estimated 600,000 people will be eligible for coverage under the expansion. PPI applauds Governor Roy Cooper for his persistent leadership to garner bipartisan support to ensure North Carolinians have the health care access they deserve through Medicaid expansion. The North Carolina House passed expansion in an 87-24 vote last week, with nearly two-thirds of House Republicans voting in favor.

The path to expansion in North Carolina was no simple feat, as North Carolina Republicans have been staunchly opposed to expansion for over a decade since it’s a policy that was implemented by the Obama administration through the ACA 13 years ago. In fact, GOP members of the North Carolina legislature were so opposed to expansion that they passed a law in 2013 to prevent the governor from even seeking expansion without approval from the General Assembly. The GOP attitude on preventing expansion in North Carolina began to change once they realized Congressional Republicans were not going to succeed in repealing or replacing the ACA in 2017, or raising the state match that coverage requires. Additionally, in May 2022, longtime expansion opponent, State Senate Leader Phil Berger, publicly expressed his support for expansion and framed it as a sensical budget move and one that would help those who fall in the coverage gap whose income is too high to qualify for Medicaid, but too low to benefit from highly subsidized private insurance.

Both chambers of the North Carolina legislature initially passed Medicaid expansion in 2022 but were unable to reach an agreement on the specifics of the state’s Certificate of Need (CON) regulations. An agreement was reached to loosen the CON regulations this year, which also helped pave the way for the expansion’s passage. Notably, the American Rescue Plan (ARP), the $1.9 trillion stimulus package that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden in 2021, allows newly expanded Medicaid states to receive additional federal Medicaid funding for their non-expansion population. North Carolina will now receive this additional funding from the ARP for the first two years of the expansion.

Under the ACA, Medicaid coverage was expanded for adults with incomes up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL). This provision was initially a requirement, but became optional after the June 2012 Supreme Court ruling in National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius, permitting states to choose to opt into expansion or not. With North Carolina now expanding Medicaid, 40 states, including the District of Columbia, have expanded the program. Ten states remain as hold-outs: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Before North Carolina expanded, South Dakota recently expanded Medicaid in 2022 in a referendum, and will start implementation in July 2023.

How Medicaid expansion will benefit North Carolina:

  • 600,000 North Carolinians will be eligible for coverage;
  • North Carolina hospitals provide roughly $1 billion in uncompensated care each year. This amount will sharply decline once Medicaid expansion is implemented and the uninsured patients that can opt into Medicaid are covered;
  • North Carolina Medicaid expansion will create 40,000 new jobs in North Carolina and will help keep rural hospitals open;
  • North Carolina will receive $8 billion in annual federal funding with no additional cost to the state along with an additional $1.8 billion to support behavioral health, public safety support, rural health care and other needs. The state left $5.9 billion in federal funding by not expanding Medicaid in 2022.

 

This data clearly demonstrates what non-expansion states are missing out on. Medicaid expansion is a state revenue generator, a job creator, lowers health care system costs, and most importantly, provides access to health care for low-income and marginalized communities, decreasing health disparities. An estimated 3.7 million people, including non-Hispanic Black people, young adults, and women of reproductive age would gain coverage in 2023 if these remaining hold-out states expanded Medicaid eligibility. It’s high time for Republican lawmakers in non-expansion states to come to the consensus that Medicaid expansion is more than worth setting aside futile partisanship over the ACA. They should look to North Carolina as an example of what is possible when Republicans put aside their opposition to the ACA and reconsider the state budgetary and health benefits of expansion. Americans are still facing financial hardship, incalculable loss, and long-COVID illnesses and disabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which also wreaked havoc on our health care system. Medicaid expansion can provide access to affordable health care and greater financial stability that many Americans desperately need now.

Understanding the Chip Export Controls

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

The development and production of leading-edge semiconductors is a difficult, expensive, and risky endeavor. Case in point: Intel, once the world’s top chipmaker, has fallen behind Taiwan-based TSMC and Korea-based Samsung in mass-producing the latest, most powerful generation of chips, used in applications such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and high-end weapons systems.

Moreover, each new generation of chips requires comparable advances in related technologies like software for designing chips (primarily made by U.S.-based companies such as Cadence or Synopsys) and ultra-precise photolithography equipment from companies like Netherlands-based ASML and Japan-based Nikon that are essential to the chip-making process.

So far, there are no Chinese companies on the very short list of global businesses contributing key technologies to leading-edge advanced chips, which aren’t easy even for companies like Intel. However, Chinese manufacturing facilities have become key producers of “mainstream” or “legacy” chips, which are powerful but “not-the-latest-model” chips that run everything from appliances to tire sensors on cars.

Against the background of this complex global chip ecosystem, the United States is pursuing a clear policy: To “maintain as large of a lead as possible” over competitors in “key technologies,” in the words of President Biden’s National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan. In particular, this goal reflects mounting concern in Washington about China’s long-term strategic threat, both military and economic. Notably, the ruling Chinese Communist Party is doubling down on a “military-civil fusion” research and development strategy that links civilian and military modernization and technology development. The immediacy of the threat can be argued, but not its nature.

The new policy has two parts and a difficult choice. The first part is to slow down the transfer of Western knowledge and capabilities to the Chinese semiconductor industry. This goes under the name “export controls,” but it really means a series of actions, described below, aiming at slowing down or stopping the conveyor belt that for the past two decades has swiftly and efficiently carried technology from the Western countries to the broad swathe of thriving Chinese factories, including those supplying the Chinese military.

The second part of the new policy must be aimed at maintaining and even accelerating advanced Western chip progress. The CHIPS Act is a start, but as noted earlier, the cutting-edge of semiconductor technology is a dangerous and expensive place to be. The U.S. is still the leader, but it can’t expect to go it alone. Other countries have unique knowledge and capabilities that must be appreciated and respected. For example, ASML is the only company in the world making extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment, without which the most powerful chips would not be possible.

The difficult choice is how far to extend the new controls in practice. There is a general consensus (though in some cases grudging) that China should be denied the latest and greatest chip technologies. To that end, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) is prohibiting the transfer of advanced semiconductor technologies to any Chinese company or fab that manufactures chips for supercomputers and other military applications is included. Moreover, American workers and companies that operate or service advanced chipmaking equipment in China henceforth will require a special waiver to continue their work. The new controls also require non-U.S. companies to comply with the new restrictions or risk being cut off from using American semiconductor technology. Indeed, the U.S. was able to convince the governments of the Netherlands and Japan, home to key suppliers, to ban the export of leading-edge technologies.

This policy, directed toward advanced chips, could well be successful in slowing China’s semiconductor progress. No matter how much China spends on semiconductor R&D, it may not be able to easily match the combined intellectual and scientific heft of the U.S., Europe, Japan, Taiwan, and Korea working together.

But the consensus begins to fray once the policy conversation turns to putting similar controls on mainstream or legacy chips. On the one hand, mainstream semiconductors are still very powerful in historical terms, and the technologies used to make them can be potentially adapted to produce more advanced chips. An argument can be made that to be truly effective, controls have to be both broad and tight. One example of potentially tight controls: The Commerce Department just proposed a set of “guardrails” that would prohibit recipients of CHIPS Act funds from expanding the capacity of their existing legacy manufacturing plants in China by more than 10% from today’s level. That would effectively put a permanent cap on U.S. production of legacy chips in China for export-oriented products.

On the other hand, these chips, used by the bucketful in all sorts of modern applications, are low-margin, and therefore a low-cost country like China logically has a comparative advantage. Moreover, automakers, aerospace companies, and other U.S. businesses benefit from the ability to import these chips at a low price, which then in turn benefits U.S. consumers.

How to escape this conundrum? The key is to look ahead toward the future. The technical bar for each new chip generation gets higher and higher, so the more hands the better when it comes to pushing the frontier forward. The Semiconductor Industry Association estimates that meeting future semiconductor needs will require $3 trillion in investments over the next decade for R&D, supply chain resiliency, and new fabs, both for advanced and mainstream chips. To put this in perspective, Intel’s total capital investment and R&D budget in 2022 came to $42 billion, suggesting what is needed is about 10 Intels.

On a global basis, that’s doable. What’s needed is a “coalition of growth” with no single country monopolizing the funding, expertise, blueprint, or supply chain for manufacturing semiconductors. This diffusion of technical know-how necessitates a balanced approach to address national security needs, safeguard semiconductor supply, and advance semiconductor technology and equipment, as the Department of Commerce and BIS are doing by soliciting public comment on the new restrictions.

The importance of semiconductors will only continue to rise in a digitized society. No one disputes the importance of semiconductors for national security. The United States cannot compromise on ensuring a secure global environment. However, the essential nature of chips will require a roadmap that integrates national security needs with chip advancement and innovation.

 

Popovian for InsideSources: A Federal Drug Discount Program for the Wealthy

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Robert Popovian and William Smith

For various factors, a single federal drug program that accounts for tens of billions in annual spending has hit a tipping point in its evolution. The combination of legal disputes, a growing data repository and investigative reports have necessarily put the 340B Drug Pricing Program under the microscope. Combined with the fact that the policy lacks any necessary guardrails to ensure transparency and integrity for patients, 340B has spiraled out of control to the point that no policymaker can ignore the need to look closer.

Recently, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia admonished the Department of Health and Human Services for requiring drugmakers to provide discounted drugs to an unlimited number of pharmacies that contract with hospitals or clinics eligible for such federally required drug discounts. Under the so-called 340B Drug Pricing Program, drugmakers must give deep discounts to certain nonprofit hospitals and clinics.

When the program began in the early 1990s, those hospitals and clinics that did not have an in-house pharmacy could sign a contract with one outside pharmacy to distribute their discounted drugs. In 2010, despite no statutory provision concerning contract pharmacies, HHS permitted hospitals and clinics to contract with an unlimited number of outside pharmacies, and the 340B program exploded.

Read more in InsideSources.

Marshall and Ritz for New York Daily News: A French lesson for American pols

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall and Ben Ritz

France has one of the most generous — and fiercely guarded — welfare states in the Western world. No one knows that better than President Emmanuel Macron, who recently won a six-year battle to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64.

That may not sound draconian to Americans since the normal retirement age for Social Security is 67. But in France, Macron’s move has ignited a furious wave of violent protests and paralyzing strikes that have shut down railways and airports and left mountains of uncollected garbage festering in the streets of Paris.

There’s a warning here for U.S. policymakers, who also confront ballooning costs of a public retirement and health system designed when there were many more young workers per retiree. Last Friday, Social Security’s and Medicare’s trustees warned that major parts of both programs will run out of money within a decade.

Read more in New York Daily News.

WHAT’S NEXT: The Future is Now! Featuring Emory Edwards of Ed Choice

Posted on by dcadmin
PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools (RAS) Project has a new podcast series on titled “WHAT NEXT: The Future is Now!” recorded at the SXSW Education conference in Austin, Texas.

In the first episode of our five-part series, RAS co-director Curtis Valentine sits down with Emory Edwards of EdChoice. Emory Edwards is the Vice President of Outreach for EdChoice, which is a nonprofit that works to ensure families have the ability to choose the best education for them. In this episode, Curtis and Emory discuss the different ways choices can benefit the education system from solving the teacher shortage to reducing class size and increasing representation for everyone in the system. Curtis and Emory speak about what they hope to hear in this year’s panel, including the discussion of how culture influences education. To wrap it up, Curtis and Emory look to the future and what they would like schools and classrooms to look like.

Learn more about EdChoice here.

Learn more about the Reinventing America’s Schools Project here.

Learn more about the Progressive Policy Institute here.

PPI’s Trade Fact of the Week: Two-thirds of the world now has internet access

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

FACT: Two-thirds of the world now has internet access

THE NUMBERS: Internet users as a share of the world population – 

2022                      66%
2018                       50%
2012                       34%
2009                      25%
2002                      10%
1990                       0.05%


WHAT THEY MEAN:

The venerable International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the world’s oldest “international organization,” has been printing, telegraphing, broadcasting, and posting telecom data since its launch in 1865.* Its most recent look at the digital world, out last September, finds 5.3 billion people, or two-thirds of the world’s 8 billion population, now have internet access. Two observations on this:

(1)  This year’s 5.3 billion internet users are nearly three times the 2.0 billion ITU counted in 2010; over ten times the 0.4 billion it found in 2000; and about 1,000 times the roughly 3 million comp sci students, telecom enthusiasts, and government officials using the pre-WWW, copper-cable-based networks of 1990. In high-income countries, more than 90% of people are now online, with the exceptions (if the U.S. is a good sample) mostly infants and elderly people who don’t want service. Many of the newer users — 600 million have logged on since the COVID pandemic — are now in lower-income regions: Least-developed country use has jumped from 89 million to 407 million since 2015, and 40% of sub-Saharan African households are now online, as against 11% in 2015.

(2)  Information exchange is rising faster than user count. ITU estimated 1,230 terabits of bandwidth in use every second (Tbps) in 2022, up from 979 Tbps in 2021, and four times the 292 Tbps it found in 2017. About 40% of data exchange goes on in Asia, which accounted for 542 of the 1,230 TBps last year. Europe added 242 TBps, the Western Hemisphere (including the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America) 224, and the rest of the world 220.

Intellectual and cultural assessments of the rising user counts and accelerating data exchanges are always pretty subjective. Economic measurements are also often murky, but there are some useful gauges, especially with respect to the U.S.. The OECD, for example, estimates that the $25 trillion U.S. economy now includes $112 billion in annual sales of data and data-related advertising, and that data stocks are worth about $421 billion in national “wealth.” With respect to trade, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis reports $89 billion in U.S. exports of information and communications services and $594 billion in digitally deliverable services in 2021 — together, more than a quarter of the $2.26 trillion in total U.S. exports.

In purely physical terms, the growth in user counts will have to slow down by the late 2020s. But the scale of information exchange can easily keep rising, since the physical capacity to carry data continues to grow both under the oceans and above the atmosphere. The glass-watchers at TeleGeography, for example, see 552 submarine cables operating in 2023, with 33 new ones scheduled to go live this year and 19 more so far in 2024. Meanwhile, satellites are handling larger shares of data flow, and 1,000 to 1,500 new ones go into orbit each year.

In ‘governance’ terms, however, questions about fraying policies and thickening cyber-borders seem to be intensifying even as the Internet accommodates more users and carries more information. Examples: steady interest among lots of governments in digital service taxation; last year’s efforts, especially from India, to end the WTO’s 24-year-old “moratorium” on tariffs for digital transmissions; and the quiet but intense ideological tug-of-war between the “internet sovereignty” concepts proposed by authoritarian governments and the “multi-stakeholder”/free flow of data views held traditionally by the U.S. and most liberal democracies, and elaborated in last year’s 61-country Declaration for the Future of the (“open, free, global, interoperable, reliable, and secure”) Internet.

* Created to deal with the questions raised by the deployment of the first telegraph cables; converted into a League of Nations organization in 1919, and a U.N.-specialized agency more recently.

 

FURTHER READING:

ITU’s 2023 “Facts and Figures” report on internet populations, data exchange, smartphone use, and more worldwide and by region.

OECD researchers measure the value of U.S.-held and -exchanged data.

And BEA tallies U.S. ICT and digitally deliverable services trade.

PPI on digital issues:

Chief Economist Michael Mandel reports on the high-performance U.S. digital economy post-COVID crisis (lower inflation than the rest of the economy, net gain of +1.4 million jobs or 66% of net private-sector job creation).

… Jordan Shapiro on privacy.

… And Malena Dailey on the risk of overenthusiastic antitrust.

Policy:

The State Department’s Bureau of Cyberspace and Digital Policy.

… and the 61-country Declaration for the Future of the Internet, including 39 in Europe, five in the Pacific, three in Africa, one in the Middle East, and 9 in the Western Hemisphere (of which two are Caribbean, two North American, one Central American, and four South American).

… the WTO’s digital technology and trade site.

… the African Union’s continental digital strategy.

… the OECD debates digital services taxes.

… China’s White Paper on digital policy, “Jointly to Build a Community With a Shared Future in Cyberspace.”

… and perceptions of Chinese digital strategy from U.S. non-governmental analysts at Pacific Forum, via the State Department.

Sea and space:

TeleGeography’s summary of fiber-optic cable deployment.

… and its interactive cable map, with search by year of deployment, countries and landing points, etc.

… and Reuters on cable deployment, geopolitics, and U.S.-China rivalry.

SpaceFlightNow’s launch calendar for 2023.

 

 

ABOUT ED

Ed Gresser is Vice President and Director for Trade and Global Markets at PPI.

Ed returns to PPI after working for the think tank from 2001-2011. He most recently served as the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Trade Policy and Economics at the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR). In this position, he led USTR’s economic research unit from 2015-2021, and chaired the 21-agency Trade Policy Staff Committee.

Ed began his career on Capitol Hill before serving USTR as Policy Advisor to USTR Charlene Barshefsky from 1998 to 2001. He then led PPI’s Trade and Global Markets Project from 2001 to 2011. After PPI, he co-founded and directed the independent think tank Progressive Economy until rejoining USTR in 2015. In 2013, the Washington International Trade Association presented him with its Lighthouse Award, awarded annually to an individual or group for significant contributions to trade policy.

Ed is the author of Freedom from Want: American Liberalism and the Global Economy (2007).  He has published in a variety of journals and newspapers, and his research has been cited by leading academics and international organizations including the WTO, World Bank, and International Monetary Fund. He is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from Columbia Universities and a certificate from the Averell Harriman Institute for Advanced Study of the Soviet Union.

Read the full email and sign up for the Trade Fact of the Week

Japan’s Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity Could Be Hindered By Proposed Mobile Platform Regulations, New PPI Report Shows

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

Japan has embraced the need for a “digital transformation” to boost productivity and spur regional growth. Achieving this digital transformation will require innovative and secure mobile applications in industries such as healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, and transportation.

However, the creation and adoption of the next generation of innovative and secure mobile apps could be slowed by regulations now being considered for mobile platforms in Japan, according to a new report released March 17 by the Progressive Policy Institute. Such regulations could unintentionally open the door to cybersecurity threats and undermine the very features of app stores that make them so effective in encouraging innovation and security. The result: A slower pace of digital transformation. The report is titled, “How the Economics and Regulation of Mobile Platforms Affects Japan’s Digital Transformation and Cybersecurity” and is authored by PPI’s Vice President and Chief Economist Dr. Michael Mandel.

The analysis in this report, while focused on Japan, is applicable to other countries as well. “Mobile apps are essential for digital transformation. Today’s app stores play a key role in ensuring that mobile apps are both innovative and secure,” said Dr. Michael Mandel. “Mobile platform regulations should be carefully scrutinized to avoid a ‘race to the bottom’ that would reduce cybersecurity, slow innovation and hinder digital transformation.”

Download the full report in English here.

Download the full report in Japanese here.

 

 

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org.

Follow the Progressive Policy Institute.

Find an expert at PPI.

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Media Contact: Tommy Kaelin; tkaelin@ppionline.org

Marshall for The Hill: Democrats need a post-populist economics

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Will Marshall

It’s been 15 years since the 2008 financial meltdown plunged America into the Great Recession. Our economy has bounced back, but the populist fury the crisis ignited has yet to burn itself out.

It manifests itself on the far left and right as general hostility to big business and, more recently, to Big Tech in particular. Fortunately, the populists’ reckless drive to break up America’s most innovative and globally competitive enterprises seems to be sputtering.

That could prove liberating for Democrats, who will never outcompete rightwing demagogues when it comes to stoking economic grievances. Instead, Democrats need a post-populist economics that inspires hope in America’s ability to innovate rapidly, generate abundant growth and opportunity and outpace China in the race to master frontier technologies.

Read more in The Hill.

Butler for Medium: What Have Democrats Done for Black Voters? Quite A Lot, Actually…

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Markose Butler

If you’ve kept up with my series of writings this past month, it’s easy to see a common theme emerge. February is Black History Month and over that time, I’ve touched on different areas in which the Democratic Party has let the African American community down by not embracing reforms that could truly unleash Black potential. This final installment will take a different tack: Instead of looking at what Democrats can improve on, this piece looks at the progress Democrats have made for the Black community.

It’s no secret that for decades the African American community has been a crucial component of the Democratic coalition. Ever since the New Deal, Democrats have made inroads with our community and after pushing the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts through in the 1960s, Democrats have largely locked up the Black vote. While it’s clear that there are still areas in which government policy can both enhance and get out of the way of Black success, the Democratic Party has made strides since then towards improving the lives of African Americans and empowering their vote.

Read more in Medium.

Lewis for The Richmond Times-Dispatch: As inflation spiked, broadband is ‘the dog that didn’t bark’

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Lindsay Mark Lewis

 

There are many lessons to be learned from last year’s midterms, but Democrats should not take the results as some broad endorsement of the economic status quo. Midterm voters identified inflation as the most important issue driving their votes. And while the latest Labor Department data shows the producer price index decreasing by 0.1% in February, prices remain 4.6% higher than a year ago, which means lawmakers still have work to do to bring inflation under control.

And as they search for ideas, they may want to examine the dog that didn’t bark – in particular, the one sector of the economy that has been an interesting counternarrative to the otherwise troubling inflation story.

Home internet service is one of the few major living costs that isn’t skyrocketing. In fact, the most popular broadband speed tier one year ago actually costs 15% less today, on average.

This success story – and the bipartisan policies behind it – offers important lessons.

Read more in The Richmond Times-Dispatch.

PHOTO RELEASE: Choice and Privacy Top Concerns at PPI’s Inaugural Women’s History Month Forum

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

In honor of Women’s History Month, the Progressive Policy Institute hosted its first annual series of policy conversations, featuring a salon dinner and a comprehensive policy forum on Capitol Hill. The events focused on health care, workforce, privacy, content moderation, and education. The panels were moderated by PPI’s women policy experts and featured special guests Rep. Suzan DelBene and Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.

“The Progressive Policy Institute has been leading the charge in Washington to uplift diverse women’s voices to the forefront of policymaking. PPI’s leading women experts make up some of the sharpest and brightest minds in public policy, and we are proud to showcase their knowledge and expertise,” said Will Marshall, President of the Progressive Policy Institute.

“Millions of Americans do not have control over their personal data and sensitive health information. In a post-Roe era, the risks and consequences of this are only heightened. One of the most foundational things that lawmakers can do to protect our information in the digital age is pass a national data privacy standard,” said Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA). “I want to thank the Progressive Policy Institute for convening this discussion on the importance of quickly passing a strong national privacy law that puts people in control of their data.”

The salon dinner — moderated by PPI’s Director of Workforce Development Taylor Maag and featuring Kentucky Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman — focused on driving gender equity in today’s economy, bringing esteemed leaders in workforce development fields to discuss labor force participation, and persisting gender gaps in STEM and other in-demand pathways.

The policy forum hosted on Capitol Hill consisted of four panel conversations and kicked off with “A Mosaic Moment,” giving attendees the opportunity to network with PPI’s policy experts. PPI President Will Marshall provided opening remarks, and Mosaic Program Director Jasmine Stoughton highlighted how the Mosaic Project is changing the landscape for women in policy.

The “Privacy in a Post-Roe World” panel featured Congresswoman Suzan DelBene (D-WA), and was moderated by PPI’s Director of Health Care Policy Erin Delaney and Director of PPI’s Innovation Frontier Project Jordan Shapiro. The panel focused on the future of access to health care resources, the tech sector’s response to securing personal health care data, and what tools are currently available to consumers to protect their health and privacy.

The “Internet as an Organizing Tool for Women’s Movements” panel explored examples of how women have pushed back against institutional inequities and, globally, authoritarian regimes using online platforms. Highlighting the ability for women to share their stories on the internet, the panel discussed how the current model of internet regulation in the United States supports these types of voices. The panel was moderated by PPI’s Technology Policy Analyst Malena Dailey.

“The New Politics of Education” panel, moderated by Co-Director of PPI’s Reinventing America’s Schools Project Tressa Pankovits, focused on how the evolving political landscape around education and parents rights. Taking a look at how women are leading in the education space, the conversation covered how the landscape has been politicized and what elected officials and educators can do to ensure moms are heard while also putting students first.

View photos from the events here:

 

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Find an expert at PPI and follow us on Twitter.

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Media Contact: Tommy Kaelin; tkaelin@ppionline.org

The Affordable Care Act at 13: An Interview with former HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute
Thirteen years ago, President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress fundamentally transformed the U.S. health care system by providing health insurance coverage that curbed costs and expanded access to millions of Americans. While challenges remain to strengthen the legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) remains entrenched as a permanent feature of America’s hybrid, public-private health care system, and continues to deliver on its promise to provide near-universal coverage to Americans at an affordable cost.
As we look back on the successes and challenges of the Affordable Care Act, the Progressive Policy Institute’s Director of Health Care Erin Delaney sits down with former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reflect on the landmark passage of the ACA and the critical role it played in providing essential coverage to millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. Delaney and Secretary Sebelius look back on the path — 13 years ago — that led to one of the most consequential pieces of health care legislation to be enacted in this country.
Read PPI’s Policy Brief on the Affordable Care Act here.
Learn more about the Progressive Policy Institute here.
Follow the Progressive Policy Institute here.

The Affordable Care Act at 13: Promises Kept and the Road Ahead

Posted on by Alyssa Brown

Thirteen years ago today, President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress fundamentally transformed the U.S. health care system by providing health insurance coverage that curbed costs and expanded access to millions of Americans. While challenges remain to strengthen the legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) remains entrenched as a permanent feature of America’s hybrid, public-private health care system, and continues to deliver on its promise to provide near-universal coverage to Americans at an affordable cost.

Since its enactment, the Republican Party has unleashed relentless attacks and legal challenges to health insurance coverage while repeatedly trying to repeal and replace the ACA despite widespread and growing support for the legislation. While Republicans tirelessly work to cut insurance coverage and raise health care costs for families across the United States, the ACA continues to serve as a milestone in the Democratic Party’s century-long struggle to create a universal health care system that leaves no one out.

As we look back on the successes and challenges of the Affordable Care Act, the Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is marking the anniversary by releasing a policy brief examining the high-level benefits of the legislation’s implementation and additional policy solutions to bolster the law. The policy brief is titled “A Public Policy Success: The Affordable Care Act and the Road Ahead,” and is authored by PPI’s Director of Health Care Erin Delaney.

In tandem with the policy brief, Delaney sat down with former Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to reflect on the landmark passage of the ACA and the critical role it played in providing essential coverage to millions of Americans during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a new interview, Delaney and Secretary Sebelius look back on the path — 13 years ago — that led to one of the most consequential pieces of health care legislation to be enacted in this country.

Download the policy brief here and listen to the full podcast episode here.

The Progressive Policy Institute (PPI) is a catalyst for policy innovation and political reform based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create radically pragmatic ideas for moving America beyond ideological and partisan deadlock. Learn more about PPI by visiting progressivepolicy.org. Find an expert at PPI and follow us on twitter.

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Media Contact: Tommy Kaelin; tkaelin@ppionline.org

Ainsley for The New Statesman: The left can win and forge a new settlement – but only if it repairs the trust we have lost

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

By Claire Ainsely

Britain could hardly have had a less trustworthy leader than Boris Johnson, and it is tempting to see untrustworthiness as an individual failing, one that can be rectified by a person of greater character. Having worked closely with him, I have no doubt Keir Starmer possesses the integrity that the office of prime minister demands. But a search for the ideal politician can only end in disappointment. And it misses the deep crisis of trust in modern democracies.

Only 37 per cent of people in the UK say they trust government to do what is right, according to the most recent Edelman Global Trust Barometer. The Truss-Kwarteng mini-Budget debacle and the traumas of the Johnson premiership have made a bad situation worse. But comparative countries do little better. In the US, just 42 per cent trust their government; in Australia it’s 45 per cent. By contrast, faster-growing economies enjoy much higher levels of faith in their leadership – for example, 76 per cent in Singapore say they trust their government to do the right thing.

As voters we are all too aware of the multiple crises we face, both in our personal lives and as a nation. Economic confidence has disintegrated, with the UK especially badly affected. Less than a quarter of Britons expect to be better off in five years’ time, and three quarters believe the government and public services will offer little support in the years ahead, according to the Ipsos global tracker.

Read more in The New Statesman.

A Public Policy Success: The Affordable Care Act and the Road Ahead

Posted on by The Progressive Policy Institute

INTRODUCTION

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law by President Barack Obama in 2010, transformed the way the U.S. health care system provides health insurance coverage that curbed health care costs and modified how health care is delivered. On the 13th anniversary of the law, it’s clear that it advanced America closer toward universal coverage, but challenges remain. As lawmakers and key stakeholders address these systemic issues that contribute to more expensive, less accessible health care, it is critical that they focus on building on the law by prioritizing Medicaid expansion in non-expansion states, mitigating coverage loss from the unwinding of the public health emergency (PHE) declaration, ensuring the U.S. has the resources needed to respond to ongoing COVID-19 costs and future pandemics, boosting funding and state data infrastructure to strengthen efforts to address social determinants of health, and expanding postpartum Medicaid coverage.

The ACA has faced an obstacle-strewn path with countless legal and legislative challenges throughout the past 13 years. Only one House Republican voted for the ACA’s passage in 2010. Republicans have since been waging an implacable battle to repeal “Obamacare,” which they touted would undermine private insurance markets and raise premiums. Nearly every budget or fiscal plan of theirs since the law’s enactment has included repealing the ACA as well as cutting Medicaid. After President Donald Trump’s election, Republicans tried repeatedly to repeal and replace the ACA but failed, despite controlling both chambers of Congress. In a dramatic 2017 vote, Republicans fell one vote short of repealing the law. In the 2018 midterm elections, they lost control of the House in a Democratic sweep, attributed in part to growing public support for the ACA.

Simultaneously, the ACA has been subjected to more than 2,000 legal challenges since its implementation. The most recent notable case, California v. Texas, which was heard by the Supreme Court in June 2021, claimed that the lawsuit filed by Texas lacked standing. The Texas district court asserted that the reduction of the individual mandate in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act to zero was justification for the ACA’s unconstitutionality as an improper use of Congress’s taxation powers. Legal experts, even those opposed to the ACA, agreed that the legal arguments to this case were absurd, as Texas ignored Congress’s decision to zero out the individual mandate but to leave the rest of the ACA in place, which is principally Congress’s decision, not the court.

Despite the at least 70 Republican attempts to repeal or modify the ACA, the law seems firmly entrenched as a permanent feature of America’s hybrid, public-private health care system. It has delivered on its promise to increase coverage and access for millions of Americans and played a key role in helping people who lost job-based insurance stay covered throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The law also has been a milestone in the Democratic Party’s century-long struggle to create a universal health care system that leaves no one out. It’s brought our country very close to universal coverage, while also testing new ways to deliver health care and reduce its cost.

This policy brief will examine the benefits of the implementation of the ACA, how to build on the ACA’s accomplishments, and rein in high medical costs to improve community health.

READ THE FULL POLICY BRIEF