Coil
CW 1
OLUME 94 - NUMBER 31
DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA - SATURDAY, AUGUST 8, 2015
TELEPHONE (919) 682-2913 PRICE: 50 CENTS
Civil Rights Groups Demand Federal
Investigation into the Death of Sandra
By Freddie Allen
NNPA Senior Washington
Correspondent
^WASHINGTON (NNPA) -
■road coalition of civil rights
0ups delivered more than
lO.OOO signed petitions to the
stice Department (DOJ), de-
Iiding that Attorney General
>rctta Lynch launch a full in-
■igation into the death of
Idra Bland and into the prac-
■es and policies of the Waller
purity, Texas police department
d the prosecutor’s office im-
p lately.
[While visiting Prairie View
University, a Historically
ack College and University
BCU), in preparation for tak-
Ia job there, Bland, a 28 year-
I graduate of the school, was
lied over for a minor traffic
Slation on July 10. That traf-
stop escalated to an arrest and
[Monday, July 13, Bland was
tod dead in a Waller County
Icell.
As news spread of Bland’s
■erious death while in po-
e custody spread across social
:dia, civil rights groups de
ed another example of driving
ile black and police brutality.
The #IfIDieInPoliceCustody
Btag trended on Twitter fol-
wing Sandra Bland’s death.
Buri ng the press conference
put the petition last Thursday,
(is Wilkins, a Freeland, Mich.
Blent and mother of four who
feed the petition on MoveOn.
recounted a conversation
it she had with her daughter
|ny Joy, who felt a strong
section with Bland’s life and
gie death. Ebony also admired
Bid’s work as an activist and
decision to return to her alma
iter to mentor the next genera-
h of black leaders.
[She said, 'Mom, I could have
[1 Sandra Bland,’” Wilkins
nembered, 'And if! die in po-
custody, I want you to know
I did not commit suicide.’”
Filkins continued: “It was at
moment that I had no choice
o act.”
Zilkins, who described her-
as an educator and a small
less owner, said that she
ed the petition because it is
le for change.
“As an African American
'ther, I am appalled at the
ling of our children and our
lire leaders and this is to-
y unacceptable to me,” said
Ikins.
Eugene Puryear, who works
h the Stop Police Terror Proj
in Washington, D.C., a group
nmitted to ending racist, mill-
Zed policing in the U.S., said
t activists don’t need to ap-
1 to institutions, they need to
isform institutions.
“The petitions are not just
lies on pieces of paper, they
resent the power of a poten-
mass movement in this coun
that has already changed the
iversation,” said Puryear, re-
ing to the on-going dialogue
'ut criminal justice reform.
Wilkins said that as a mother,
I was tired of these untimely
ths at the hands of police of-
Ts and that she was also tired
being afraid for the lives of
four adult children.
'As a mother, I am sick and
d of being sick and tired,”
ikins said, quoting Fannie
1 Hamer, the late Mississippi
il rights activist.
Rev. Graylan Hagler, senior
lister of the Plymouth Con-
gational United Church of
ist and the executive director
■ aith Strategies, a human and
I rights group in Washington,
.Continued On Page 2)
(Left-Right) Eugene Puryear of the Stop Police Terror Project in Washington, D.C., Lois Wilkins, the Freeland, Mich., resident
and mother of four who started the petition on MoveOn.org, and Reverend Graylan Hagler, the senior pastor of the Plymouth Con
gregational United Church of Christ carry boxes of signed petitions to the visitor’s entrance of the Department of Justice. (Freddie
Allen/NNPA News Wire)
Then & Now: Medicare and Medicaid turn 50
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar
WASHINGTON (AP) - When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Medicare and Medicaid into law on July 30, 1965, roughly half of
Americans 65 and older had no health insurance.
"No longer will older Americans be denied the healing miracle of modern medicine,” Johnson said at the bill signing. “No longer will
illness crush and destroy the savings that they have so carefully put away over a lifetime so that they might enjoy dignity in their later years.
No longer will young families see their own incomes, and their own hopes, eaten away simply because they are carrying out their deep moral
obligations to their parents, and to their uncles, and their aunts.”
Fifty years later, virtually all seniors have coverage, a far higher rate than younger people.
“It’s hard to imagine a world without Medicare and Medicaid,” Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said July 29 at
the official commemoration. “Medicare and Medicaid aren’t just about health care; they are about who we are as a nation, about living up to
our own values.”
Presidents and lawmakers of both political parties have collaborated to expand Medicare benefits and to shore up finances.
Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income and disabled people, got off to a slower start, but now covers an estimated 69 million
people, making it the largest government health program. It pays for nearly half of U.S. births and a little over half of the nation’s nursing
home bill.
But the long-range solvency of both programs remains cloudy. A mix of tax increases, benefit cuts, and reductions in payments to service
providers will be needed sooner or later, experts say. The longer policymakers wait, the more wrenching the changes.
Today. Medicare and Medicaid together cover about 1 in 3 Americans. Here’s a look at the programs, then and now:
Then: In 1965, life expectancy at age 65 was 13.5 years for men, and 18 years for women. That’s using Social Security data for “cohort
life expectancy,” which takes into account improvements in survival during the later years of life.
After Medicare's enactment, Social Security offices around the country signed up 19 million people for coverage effective July 1, 1966.
Now: In 2015. life expectancy at age 65 has risen to 19.3 years for men and 21.6 years for women.
Nearly 56 million seniors and disabled people of any age are enrolled in Medicare. Even with the World War II generation passing away,
total enrollment is rising by more than 2 million people a year as baby boomers reach 65 and qualify.
Then: Segregated hospitals and nursing homes were common, particularly in the South.
Now: Although racial and ethnic health disparities persist, segregated facilities are unheard of. As a condition of receiving Medicare and
Medicaid payments, hospitals and nursing homes have to assure the government that they don’t discriminate, or they can’t be paid. Hospital
desegregation proved much less divisive than integration of public schools.
Then: Medicaid eligibility was tied to receiving government welfare checks. Many poor children were uninsured.
Now: The welfare reform law of the 1990s, and coverage expansions for children that preceded it, broke the link between Medicaid and
welfare.
In some states, Medicaid’s coverage for children reaches up into the middle class. About 1 in 3 children, regardless of income, are covered
by Medicaid, says the Kaiser Family Foundation. Among poor children, that rises to 3 out of 4.
President Barack Obama’s health care law expanded Medicaid to cover low-income, working-age adults with no children living at home,
a major group that had been left out by safety-net programs. The expansion is optional for states, and 30 states plus Washington, D.C., have
either accepted it or proposed to do so.
Medicaid has evolved into a blanket program for all low-income people.
Then: Medicare did not cover prescription drugs.
Now: Prescription coverage took effect in 2006 under Republican President George W. Bush. Obama's health care law strengthened the
drug benefit by gradually eliminating a coverage gap known as the “doughnut hole.”
"It’s the typical American style of doing things,” said economist Gail Wilensky, Medicare administrator under President George H.W.
Bush. “Add a little here, add a little there. It’s messy, but it's how we do things.”
The incremental approach sometimes finds political acceptance more readily, Wilensky added.
When Medicare was enacted, the American Medical Association opposed it as “socialized medicine.” But Johnson cajoled a promise from
the organization that doctors would not resist its implementation.
Then: Medicare and Medicaid used private insurers behind the scenes to process claims, but not generally to deliver benefits.
Now: Private insurance plans increasingly are the consumer-facing side of both programs.
About 3 in 4 Medicaid beneficiaries are enrolled in private managed care plans. About 30 percent of Medicare beneficiaries are in so-called
Medicare Advantage plans, a part of the program that has been growing rapidly. The private plans usually offer lower out-of-pocket expenses
when compared to traditional Medicare, but restrict choice of hospitals and doctors.
The prescription drug benefit - also known as Part D - is offered through private insurers as well.
Then: Income wasn’t a yardstick for Medicare benefits.
Now: Increasingly upper-income seniors are being charged more. Higher premiums for “Part B” coverage of outpatient services, as well
as for the prescription drug program, kick in at annual incomes of $85,000 for individuals and $170,000 for couples.
It’s a trend that can be expected to continue. As policymakers grapple with Medicare’s long-term financing problems, many beneficiaries
who consider themselves middle class and not wealthy could end up paying more.
Online.Kaiser Family Foundation - http://kff.org/medicaremedicaid50/
Body cameras
get little attention
from NC
lawmakers
By John Moritz
RALEIGH (AP) - In the wake
of unrest in Ferguson, Missouri
and Baltimore over police kill
ings of unarmed black men, the
trial of a former Charlotte police
officer charged with manslaugh
ter for the 2013 shooting of Jon
athon Ferrell has been met with
relative calm.
Law enforcement in Charlotte
has teamed with local clergy and
barbers to build relations with
community members and keep
the peace regardless of the out
come ofthe trial of former Char
lotte-Mecklenburg police officer
Randall Kerrick.
Charlotte plans on equipping
1,400 police officers with body
cameras by October. Several cit
ies and towns including Ashe
ville and Durham have also ap
proved pilot programs.
Meanwhile in Raleigh, law
makers have been less willing
to take action addressing police
interactions.
The most support comes in
the House budget, which in
cludes includes $2.5 million in
funding to local departments
to purchase body cameras. The
Senate budget does not include
those funds, and legislative lead
ers are in discussions to find a
compromise spending bill by
their self-imposed Aug. 14 dead-
line.
Two bills requiring most po
lice officers in the state to wear
body cameras did not make it out
of a House committee, nor did a
bill banning racial profiling and
requiring officers receive diver
sity training.
Legislation authorizing a
study on body cameras and an
other bill specifying that police
footage remain confidential were
passed by the House but died in
the Senate.
Prosecutors say Ferrell
crashed his car early on the
morning of Sept. 14, 2013 and
went to get help by knocking on
the door of a nearby home when
a person inside called 911 to re
port a robber. Kerrick arrived
with two other officers and fired
12 shots, 10 of which hit Ferrell.
Kerrick faces up to 11 years in
prison if convicted.
Kerrick’s attorneys contend
he acted in self-defense. They
say Ferrell had been using mari
juana and drinking alcohol and
that he told officers: “Shoot me.
Shoot me.”
Michael Weiss contributed to
this report.
NAACP’s ‘Journey*
for Justice’ protest
march
SELMA, Ala. (AP) - Pro
test marches have been part of
Selma’s civil rights fabric since
1965, but an 860-mile trek to
Washington had a minister lean
ing on the Bible for heavenly
support Aug. 1.
The Rev. Theresa Dear not
ed the magnitude of what lies
ahead, but never doubted that the
“40-day-and-40-night” march
will be successful.
Dear told the Montgomery
Advertiser just before the march
began at the Edmund Pettus
Bridge, “We are doing some
thing of biblical proportions.”
Sponsored by the NAACP,
“America’s Journey for Justice,”
is scheduled to extend through
eastern seaboard states before
ending in Washington, D.C., on
Sept. 15.