Marlon Wayans advocates for the necessity for therapy within the Black community and shares how much it has impacted his overall well-being.

The veteran actor and humorist sat down with Hollywood and the mind on September 12 for a day of essential conversations about Black representation and mental health. Reflecting on his 30-year profession, his experiences with grief, the pursuit of joy, and his views on spirituality, Wayans passionately emphasized the importance of therapy in his life and within the Black community at large.

“I have been in therapy and I suggest people continue with it,” Olson told Hollywood & Mind founder Cathy Applefeld. “It’s funny…Black people, we often struggle with our mental health. We laugh about it; we are not taught this. I want to use my platform, my voice, to tell people, my people, that we need this. It helped me.”

Wayans attributed the sadness he experienced after his parents’ death to changing his perspective as an artist and the impact he desires to make on the world.

“Don’t limit your dreams,” he told the audience. “I don’t desire to be divisive in anything I do. This world needs laughter, love and numerous learning and that is why I’m here.

The star also talked about his recent stand-up special on Prime Video, wherein he delves into his struggles with depression following the death of his mother in 2020 and his father three years later.

“My mother’s death shattered me into a million pieces. I was devastated,” Wayans revealed. “When I lost my mother, they couldn’t make alcohol strong enough for me. When my father died, I slowly pulled myself together. When you undergo pain and destruction and then you definitely pick yourself up, you have not lost yourself, you’ve got just found a greater you.

Wayans stars in Jordan Peele’s upcoming psychological horror film, which is scheduled for a September 2025 release. He plays a legendary quarterback who takes a promising young athlete (played by Tyriq Withers) to his isolated compound for training. The comedian considers taking up the lead role in a movie to be a transformative experience.

“In the film I play the greatest quarterback of all time. I went on a journey to learn what it was like to be great, and I realized that by working on this character, I was actually building a better version of myself,” Wayans said. “I jumped into a dark pool to find this character, because in search of characters you go to dark places, and when I was looking for the character of Isaiah, I looked up and saw a broken Marlon lying face down and I thought… forget about it. GOAT,” he said, referring to his character. “This one needs your help. And so finding Isaiah helped me find a better version of Marlon.”

The 2024 presidential election is lower than five weeks away, and almost every poll shows the race continues to be dangerously close. Just as essential because the presidential election are the countless midterm elections for state and native positions comparable to governor, mayor and attorney general, which may have enormous consequences for our freedoms. Whether it’s reproductive freedom, the liberty to study our history, or the liberty to make a living for our families, these decisions deserve our undivided attention.

Over the past few months, the Global Black Economic Forum (GBEF) has gained momentum, mobilizing our community to not only go to the polls, but to make informed decisions once we do.

For example, we hosted quite a few events with elected officials – most notably Vice President Kamala Harris. During this fireside chat on the GBEF stage of the ESSENCE 2024 Cultural Festival, she made it clear that one other 4 years of Donald Trump will mean one other 4 years of chaos, lawlessness, and an anti-freedom agenda that may fall disproportionately on the shoulders of girls, Black people, and other people of color.

At the GBEF Business Summit, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined Richelieu Dennis, founder and CEO of Sundial Group of Companies, and I to debate how recent U.S. Supreme Court cases on abortion, democracy, and affirmative motion have raised the stakes of this election. Leader Jeffries mentioned that Black America resides in its third “period of backlash” in relation to progress, emphasizing the necessity to have interaction in order that we will survive this era and get to the opposite side.

We also convened meetings of outstanding members of the black business community, including Thasunda Brown DuckettCEO and President of TIAA and Robert F. Smithfounder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners. Their perspectives – as pioneers in their fields – have helped our community understand how we will transform the financial landscape to construct and sustain wealth. It was clear from each discussions how essential it’s for our voices to be heard in any respect levels of presidency.

GBEF also had the chance to attend the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual legislative conference on September 12 in Washington, DC. I had the chance to participate in a panel titled “Pathways to Prosperity: Advancing Democracy and Black Economic Opportunity.” The conversation highlighted a key a part of the discussion about economic injustice that is commonly neglected – how racial disparities harm the U.S. economy to the tune of trillions of dollars. Closing the racial wealth gap would actually increase U.S. gross domestic product (GDP). The conversation emphasized that the present realities of Black economic life will only be fixed when policymakers, business leaders and community activists come together more often and faster to realize progress.

These moments in the summer were a natural progression to our recent launch of Paint the Polls Black. As we have now recruited reliable and trusted communicators in the community to attract attention to key issues, we, the Sundial Group of Companies – which incorporates ESSENCE, Global Black Economic Forum, Girls United, AfroPunk, BeautyCon, Refinery29 and New Voices Foundation – have also announced an in depth schedule virtual events that help voters understand how key policy issues impact our on a regular basis lives.

So far, we have now seen great appetite for the programs we run – the primary three events attracted tons of of hundreds of viewers. There’s more programming ahead on the importance of battleground states, how one can get others in the community to vote, early voting policies, and how one can ensure your rights aren’t blocked on the ballot box. But we’d like your help to spread the word.

Visit paintthepollsblack.com to view our previous town halls and enroll for upcoming events. Full content will also be found on the Global Black Economic Forum YouTube side.

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Fees for specialist doctors are rising faster than Discounts on medical careresulting in greater payment disparities for patients.

Latest data from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that in the primary quarter of this yr, Medicare rebates covered just over half (52%) of total payments. This is down from 72% twenty years ago and is the bottom percentage in history.

Doctors can charge whatever they like while the federal government sets the Medicare rebate. The difference between them or the gap affects patients. In the case of GPs, the federal government provides incentives for doctors omnibus accountbut there isn’t a such incentive for other specialists.

Doctors blame too low rebates for big payment gaps, they usually’re partly right. After accounting for inflation and rising demand, the typical dollar amount one person receives annually in Medicare rebates has fallen. AU$349 to AU$341 over the past decade.

But that is only a part of the issue. When many individuals cannot afford tons of (if not 1000’s) of dollars for essential specialty care, we want to have a look at why fees are so high.

How do professionals determine their remuneration?

Although general practice is technically a specialization, after we discuss medical specialists in this text, we mean specialists who are not general practitioners. These may include pediatricians, oncologists, psychiatrists and dermatologists.

When determining fees, professionals consider a mix of things on the patient level, on the physician level, and on the system level.

Patient characteristics, comparable to the complexity of their condition, may increase the value. This is because more complex patients may require more time and resources.

Professionals, based on their experience, perceived skill level, or ethical considerations, may charge kind of. For example, some specialists say they provide discounts for specific groups, e.g. children or retirees.

System-level aspects, including the fee of running a practice (e.g., hiring staff) and the placement of the practice, also play a task.

Problems arise when prices vary significantly, which regularly signals limited competition or excessive market power. This applies to medical services where patients have little control over prices and rely heavily on doctors’ recommendations.

IN recent researchmy colleagues and I discovered that the salaries of execs in the identical field vary significantly. In some cases, the most costly specialist charged greater than twice as much as the most affordable.

Physician characteristics influence fee setting

Me and my colleagues recently analyzed tens of millions of compensation claims from private hospitals in Australia between 2012 and 2019. We found that the wide variation in fees is basically as a result of differences between individual physicians, quite than aspects comparable to patient complexity or the differences we’d expect between specialties.

Up to 65% of the variation in total fees and 72% in out-of-pocket payments will be attributed to differences between physicians in the identical field.

To understand what physician-level aspects lead to high fees, we watched data from a representative survey of specialists. We found that senior professionals have lower fees and better aggregate fee rates. Practice owners typically charged higher fees.

We also found that physicians’ personality affects how much they charge and the way often they bill patients collectively. Physicians who scored higher on the personality trait of agreeableness were more prone to bill patients in bulk, while those that scored higher on neuroticism tended to overcharge patients.

We couldn’t show any evidence that the fees were related to competition.

Impact on patients

This will not be a competitive market. On the contrary, it has high entry restrictions (long training requirements) and a limited supply of specialists, especially in rural and distant areas. Meanwhile, patient access is controlled by the necessity to have referrals, which often expire after a yr.

Patients are often unable to buy or make informed decisions about their care as a result of a lack of knowledge in regards to the true costs and quality of services.

For private hospital services, the fee structure is complicated by the undeniable fact that several providers (e.g., surgeon, anesthesiologist, surgical assistant) bill individually, making it difficult for patients to know the full cost prematurely.

Despite efforts to introduce price transparency in recent times, including through the federal government Treatment cost search engine website, the system stays unclear. Reporting is voluntary and the evidence is mixed on whether these tools are effective in lowering prices or increasing competition.

All of this contributes to high and unpredictable out-of-pocket costs, which might result in financial burdens for patients. ABOUT 10.5% of Australians the reported cost was the explanation for delaying or avoiding a specialist visit in 2022–2023.

This raises necessary questions on the fairness and sustainability of Australia’s universal health care system, which relies on the principle of equal access to take care of all residents.

What will be done?

Patients can take steps to attenuate their costs by actively looking for information. This includes asking your GP for a variety of options after referral to a specialist. Please keep in mind that a referral from your loved ones doctor will be used with every other doctor of the identical specialization.

Similarly, ask your specialist receptionist what the fee and discount might be before or after making an appointment detailed quote before going to hospital. Look around if it’s too high.

But the responsibility doesn’t rest solely with patients. For example, the federal government could try to deal with this problem by increasing investment in outpatient care in public hospitals, which could increase competition for specialists. It could also publish a fee range in comparison with a rebate for all consultations paid for by Medicare, quite than counting on doctors’ voluntary reports.

Price transparency alone will not be enough. Patients also need high-quality information and higher guidance to navigate the health care system. That’s why continued investment in improving health awareness and care coordination is significant.

If the situation doesn’t change, the financial burden on patients will likely proceed to extend, undermining each individual health outcomes and the broader goals of equal access to health care.