Greetings!
Last week we quietly launched a new feature — Health Wednesday. Our intent is to spotlight articles on health and the business of health care on a weekly basis in a way that readers will find useful.
When you get down to it, there's not much more important than our health and the health of our loved ones. And like most everything else in America, health care has a color line that while invisible or permeable by some, is pervasive that the phrase "social determinants of health" is a recurring lived experience reality for a high percentage of the black community.
The last two years have brought several reminders of the precarity of black health care. One beneficial outcome of the heightened stress we all seem to be feeling these days is a greater awareness of the importance of mental health as a component of our overall health. World class athletes have played a huge role in bringing mental health to the frontal lobes. Think Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, and Kevin Love. The willingness of these super high achievers to discuss their mental health in public will hopefully go a long way towards dissipating the stigma of mental illness that resides in society at large, and especially in the black community.
That backdrop was on our minds today as we posted this illuminating story on black therapists and other mental health caregivers.
More than ever these days, the health of our bodies is linked to to the health of our wallets. This was underscored by the recent report from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau [CFPB] that the financial infrastructure of our healthcare system is rife with traps and snares that help to burden 43 million consumers with $88 billion in medical debt. Fortunately, some relief has arrived in the form of new federal and Ohio laws designed to reduce, if not eliminate, surprise billing. Read the story here.
And take a look at these stories from last week's HEALTH WEDNESDAY debut. All of them have a currency that extends past their date of publication.
Be well.
As always, stay safe and thanks for reading The Real Deal Press!
R. T. Andrews
Note, if you work in the health space, and have an announcement you'd like us to include for Health Wednesday, our weekly deadline is the preceding Friday at 5p.
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