Health Care, Fight Insurance Company, Re-Bisoning the West

Guest: J.B. Silvers, PhD, Professor of Health Care Finance, Case Western Reserve University Republicans do not appear to have the votes they need to repeal and replace Obamacare. But this latest attempt generated a lot of enthusiasm among Republicans because of its strong focus on giving states more control of healthcare funding. This won’t be the last we hear of the state-based approach in the bill – known as Graham-Cassidy – so let’s consider what it has to offer – and at what cost.

Guest: Jacqueline Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Psychology, University of Utah When you’re asked to check a box for your racial identity on a questionnaire – like the US Census – does it ever give you a moment’s pause? Maybe you’re white and the answer is automatic. Maybe your parents or grandparents married someone with skin color different from their own. So, which are you? Does race just mean skin color? Or is it as much about where you come from?   The way we, in America, think about race, is directly tied to the history of race relations in this country.  And to prove that, University of Utah social psychologist Jacqueline Chen did an experiment comparing Americans and Brazilians on a series of questions about race. The results are thought-provoking.

Guest: Taylor Nelson, Manager of SolutionsU The world’s got a lot of problems. The print, radio and TV news outlets are filled with them because, frankly, reporters love to talk about problems. You’ll have to dig a little deeper to find stories of how people are responding to those problems and what solutions are in the works. The Solutions Journalism Network launched several years ago with an aim to encourage more of that kind of news.

Guest: Phillip Sanov, JD, Insurance Attorney, Merlin Law Group, Houston It’s been a month since Hurricane Harvey devastated Houston with torrential rains and floods. Victims have been busy with the unpleasant tasks of clearing debris, assessing the damage and filing claims with their insurance companies. Even though insurance companies are supposed to have your back when disaster strikes, the battle to get your claims paid can be as exhausting as the cleanup itself.

Guest: Lauren Ferreira Cardoso, PhD Candidate, Social Policy and Practice, University of Pennsylvania Men who beat their wives may justify it by saying, “She deserved it, she disobeyed me, she provoked me.” When it comes to spousal abuse, the University of Pennsylvania found that, around the world, women who have access to technology are much more likely to reject justifications for a man beating his wife.

Guest: Kurt Repanshek, Founder and Editor of National Parks Traveler  Bison in the American West are a conservation success story. Tens of millions are said to have roamed the continent when Europeans first arrived. And then bison were hunted to the edge of extinction - there were only about 200 left in the 1960s. Conservation efforts have brought the bison back to around half a million head today in the US. They’re an especially popular tourist attraction in Yellowstone National Park. But bison are not universally beloved. In states with large cattle ranching industries, bison are considered a disease-ridden scourge. Kurt Repanshek details this bison battle in a new report at NationalParksTraveler.org – the nonprofit national parks reporting project he founded.