Increasing access to affordable healthcare and education will expand economic opportunity for Americans living below the median income and wealth levels.

The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP) is working this legislative session to advance ideas to bring down prescription drug prices. In particular, we are briefing members of Congress and their staff on the Senate Finance Committee’s bipartisan Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (S. 2543).

FREOPP is continuing its work to lower hospital prices through increased competition among highly-consolidated hospital systems. In December 2019, FREOPP held a half-day conference on the topic, featuring the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma and leading scholars across the political spectrum, who offered bipartisan paths forward to lower costs for patients. In this legislative session, FREOPP will continue to talk with policymakers about the importance of hospital competition, highlighting two bills: Rep. Jim Banks’s (R-Ind.) Hospital Competition Act (H.R. 506) and Rep. Bruce Westerman’s (R-Ark.) wide-ranging Fair Care Act (H.R. 1332).

FREOPP is also focused on building a platform for education reform with the January release of “The State of Equal Opportunity in American K-12 Education,” a white paper detailing how to close the achievement gap between poor and wealthy K-12 children. In 2020, FREOPP will continue these efforts by developing a plan for higher education and student loan reform.