Policy & Issues
Health reform, access are not necessarily linked
Insurance coverage from the health reform law may not bring access to health care for Tennesseeans newly insured under the law, especially minorities and especially in the Memphis area, according to a new study from BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. Nearly 600,000 Tennesseans are expected to get health insurance when or if the Affordable Care Act [...]
Former top Calif. football prospect exonerated
First he cried. Then Brian Banks — exonerated of a rape conviction that cost him five years in prison — walked outside the courthouse and seized the moment of freedom he had dreamed of for so long. “This is the first step in reinventing my life,” he said after a judge issued his ruling Thursday, [...]
African Americans Should Ignore The Recent Prostate Cancer Test Recommendation
Thomas A. Farrington, PHEN President & Founder – I was in Atlanta, Georgia the past few days attending the American Urological Association’s (AUA) Annual Conference. While there we heard from the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) that it had ignored the voices of prostate cancer specialist, patients and patient advocacy organizations and that [...]
U.S. Paying Needlessly High Cost for Crime, Expert Says
States are spending $52 billion a year on corrections, with one U.S. adult in 31 either incarcerated, on probation, or on parole, according to the Pew Foundation. The U.S. incarceration rate is by far the highest in the world. Spending on corrections is now the second fastest-growing item in state budgets after Medicaid. It has [...]
Explaining the sudden shift on gay marriage among African Americans
The big polling news today is that in the wake of President Obama’s “evolution” on marriage equality, African American voters have flipped from opposition to support — to such an extent that changes among black voters have been enough to make it likely that the Maryland ballot measure to support same-sex marriage, that seemed destined [...]
