- [Narrator] Funding for this edition of State of Affairs with Steve Adubato has been provided by PSE&G, committed to providing safe, reliable energy now and in the future.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

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Johnson & Johnson.

And by IBEW Local 102.

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Available at newsstands.

[INSPRATIONAL MUSIC] - Hi.

I'm Steve Adubato.

Welcome to another compelling and important program looking at a range of issues that affect our lives today and moving forward.

We're honored to be joined, for the first time, by Reverend Dr. Charles Boyer, who is Founding Director of Salvation and Social Justice.

Dr. Boyer, thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you so much for having me, Steve.

- How would you describe your organization?

- Our organization is a Black faith-rooted public policy organization.

We advocate for the rights, the resiliency and the restoration of Black people, particularly from a Black faith-rooted standpoint, the liberation theology lens.

Historically, Black faith communities have been part of every major liberation movement here in the United States and so that's what we draw from.

That history and that faith.

- Doctor let me ask you this.

Two areas I wanna focus on one, the insurrection of January 6th.

We're taping on February 16th, this will be seen after.

What do you believe the long-term implications, the impact will be, of that January 6th event?

And everything around it and what was said and who was there, as it relates to the African-American community?

Simply put, how much of it do you believe was motivated by racism?

- Well, thank you for that question.

I believe all of it was motivated by racism.

And the reason that I say that so forthrightly is because it tracks with a very insidious history in the country and never has it happened at the National Capitol before, but it has happened in State Capitals in towns, all throughout United States history.

As Black people have gained political power, as we have won seats, won political and even gained economic power throughout various areas in the United States, that has been met with a real strong white, violent backlash.

This perception that Black people gaining power, is white people losing power and that resentment has played itself out.

And so this is what we saw again we all know that it was the big lie.

That was- - About the election.

- Exactly the big lie about the election.

The lie that, in places where predominantly Black people turned out very strongly, and exercised- - Philadelphia.

Just say Philadelphia.

- Philadelphia, Detroit, the list goes on and on.

And it's in those places where our votes were called illegitimate and corrupt.

And so this was the backlash and this tracks with a president who used this very kind of- - President Trump.

- President Trump that has dealt in this kind of racist resentment in order to even elevate to the top of the Republican party.

- So let me ask you this.

'Cause the other question I'm gonna ask you is about.

Well I'm gonna get this out of the way and I'm gonna come back to President Biden and Vice-president Harris and what the potential silver lining, if I can call it that, Doctor and reasons to be optimistic.

But, resistance to the vaccine, as we speak right now, in the African-American community is higher than in any other community.

Is that a fact?

- Yes.

Yes.

- Historically warranted, anyone who is not Black may not understand that - Right.

- however.

Not an unacceptable situation, because disproportionately COVID is impacting the Black community adversely.

Disproportionate deaths, sickness, hospitalizations.

What message do you have for those watching who happened to be Black and say, "Nah, I don't trust.

"Too soon, too quick."

You say?

- Well, I say, first of all, that the skepticism is warranted.

There's a long history of medical apartheid.

A long history of experimentation.

A long history of neglect.

And so, I don't come to this outside of my blackness, as well.

And when it came down to educating myself, as someone who has a congregation, as someone who has a network and some level of influence, I had to be confident.

And so what I did, I looked to Black physicians, Black scientists.

Black people that I know.

Who I trust and watched as they took the vaccine, heard and got fully educated about it and now I feel very confident about taking it.

And as I take it, then I ask those who know and trust me to do the same.

So look out for family members, for people you trust, really be educated.

The difference now, as opposed to the past, is that we have fought long and hard to have Black people in positions of power, influence, science, medicine.

Those people are in place.

Now that they're there, let's trust them and let's benefit from the vaccine.

- Hey team, could we put up our website, steveadubato.org?

And the reason I'm saying that, is we have two compelling interviews.

Help me on this, Lauren, we recently did an interview where we had Dr. Shereef Elnahal, who is the CEO of University Hospital, also the former Commissioner of Health in the state, and also the terrific physician Dr. Chris Pernell, who was also from the University.

Check that out.

We have a whole series right now on the vaccine.

What you need to know, (coughing) excuse me, COVID, what you need to know.

Let me ask you this.

What do you believe the opportunity is, Reverend Dr. Boyer, for the Biden administration, together with an historically selected and now serving Vice-president of the United States, Vice-president Harris.

What is the opportunity and the challenge, as it relates to social justice and making some progress around race?

- Well, sure.

Just before, please call me Charles.

All the titles make me nervous.

So Charles is fine.

- Will do.

- (laughing) Listen, the Biden administration, the Harris administration I do believe, offers a tremendous amount of hope.

Number one, the silver lining is, these people, this administration is the manifestation of the exercise of Black political power.

These are folks that Black folks did tip the election to, both in the primary and in the general election.

Therefore, one of the things that we saw, which we have never seen before from a president.

In the inauguration speech, in the acceptance speech, affirm the fact that structural racism exists.

And say that there is a commitment to deal with these things.

No longer are we trapped with the tropes and the litmus test of overt racism, but rather the structures that consistently work against Black people and with the executive order that was put out that would examine all things through a racial justice lens, an equity lens those things are good signs.

And let me just add this last part.

Whenever a Black woman is involved, a Black woman who has felt the tyranny of white supremacy.

I think we're in good hands.

And so I'm very optimistic about the Biden and Harris administration.

I don't expect them to get it right all of the time but that's where we come in.

Just because they're there, that's just the beginning of the story.

The beginning of the advocacy and it's up to us to hold them accountable to address the needs and the agenda that we put forth.

- Charles, I want to thank you so much for taking the time not just to be with us but to share an extremely important perspective as we continue our series Confronting Racism.

As we continue looking at COVID, the vaccine and the important questions that need to be asked and answered, particularly as it relates to communities of color.

Terribly, disproportionately affected.

The Reverend, whether he likes his titles or not or doesn't want to have them out there.

He is in fact, Reverend Dr. Charles Boyer, who's Founding Director of Salvation and Social Justice.

Charles, I want to thank you so much for joining us.

All the best to you and your congregation.

- Thank you, Steve.

God bless you.

- Same to you.

I'm Steve.

Adubato.

We'll be right back.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored to be joined by David Troutt, distinguished Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Law, Inequality and Metropolitan Equity at Rutgers Law School in Newark.

Thank you for joining us professor.

- Thanks for having me, it's great to be here - By the way the, the acronym is C-L-I-M-E?

- M-E, CLIME, yes.

- CLIME.

- It's a mouthful otherwise.

- Yeah, and the mission of the center is?

- So the mission of the center, it's an interdisciplinary center doing impact research across university units but out of the law school.

And the mission really is to focus on issues of structural inequality.

And the reason that we sort of started in the law school has been because that's my expertise, it's the framework for so many of the things that we look at, but there's no issue that we look at that doesn't involve institutions where the primary discipline is outside of law, whether it's healthcare or housing or urban planning or economics.

So we're constantly working with affiliated faculty across the Rutgers campus.

- It's interesting, by the way, you speak about the Rutgers campus, as a Rutgers alum, I know it well.

This series, Confronting Racism, whole range of segments to it that you should look on our website and see.

But this particular segment is done in cooperation with Rutgers, the state university, and Rutgers Newark, and particularly, behalf of Rutgers Newark.

Let me ask you this professor.

Confronting Racism in 2021, what does it mean to you?

- It means finally reckoning with the self executing self reproducing dynamic that racism in this country has become in order to be so resilient despite sporadic efforts to change it wholesale.

So we are really looking at it, not just as a systemic phenomenon, but as a structural phenomenon in the sense that racism is embedded in the norms, the practices, the rules, and the laws by which our key institutions operate.

And by key institutions, I'm focusing primarily upon those that are responsible for a sense of opportunity.

And so you can move down the line from policing, to housing policy, to healthcare.

And the pandemic in this past year has demonstrated so many, so many ways to see it.

But you'd see within our rules, within our norms, the various ways that people's systemic lack of reliable quality healthcare has helped to sort of cripple them in racially disproportionate ways so that when along comes this horrible virus, we see this incredible disparate impact.

The same could be said of policing, the same could be said of employment systems now.

- How about housing, how about affordable housing?

- Well, affordable housing.

I'm so glad that you asked, because we're just about to release, you know, after about four months of research and affordability assessment of the city of Newark, and housing is really probably one of the main repositories of so many systemically racist rules and practices, both at the attitudinal level among individuals, as well as at the institutional level - And stay on that because there's a direct correlation between the housing crisis, affordable housing and the fact that unemployment has gone up significantly in the city of Newark in the last year or so.

- It's gone from 7% before the pandemic to 17% now.

- Help people understand what that really means professor.

- I don't think they do.

And I'm not even sure frankly that we understood it.

I mean, I'm pretty involved in a lot of Newark politics just in terms of local government decision-making in helping to assist the city in its equitable growth principles and desire to sort of frame policy around that.

And so we do a lot of talking about affordable housing.

We know that it's a crisis.

I don't think we knew the extent of the crisis.

I mean, we've looked at this now and having to sort of unpack the methodology, we've determined that in order to meet the need for affordable housing in the city of Newark, you would need to produce over 16,000 units of housing at about a monthly rent of $763.

Now the current median rent for the city is $1,100.

And most affordability measures would consider your housing at 1200, 1300 $1,400 a month consistent with federal guidelines of affordability.

But for a city in which the median household income is only $30,000.

$30,000, that's very low income.

You know, we just have to use a different measure.

So when we think about that, we then realize that people simply do not have the resources, they're just not making enough money in the jobs that they hold.

These are essential workers, these are retail workers, these are healthcare workers, these are school custodial workers for the most part who earn this kind of money.

And so when the pandemic hits, they're obviously in much more precarious situations.

They're at risk of losing their jobs.

- What about the risk of eviction?

- And they're certainly at risk of eviction because what what it means to be stretched thin, the term in social science research is rent burdened, meaning you're paying at least a third of your pre-tax income on your housing costs.

- On housing.

- Or severely rent burdened at half, at more than half.

- Half of your income on housing?

- At least half.

And that's 60% of Newarkers pay more than a third.

So 60% are rent burdened, a third are severely rent burdened, paying more than half.

So what does it mean?

It means that you're stretched thin.

It means that you are foregoing other kinds of needs but it also means that every dollar you make counts because you are paying so much more than you can afford to pay that there's no margin for error.

And so in a pandemic when people are losing their jobs at this rate or having their hours cut back or getting sick and not being paid for the period when they're out, they're at risk of losing their housing.

And so we're seeing a massive increase in ejectment which are when you lose your home but you're there without a lease, so you are the person who had to go sleep on your cousin's couch and you were there for two months, the landlord found out and kicked you out.

Or, you are subject to eviction for nonpayment, and while there's a moratorium until the end of March, we're not forgiving that back rent.

So we will see come the spring, the full fruits of this incredibly difficult time for so many families, - Sorry for interrupting professor, by the way, I remind folks we're taping on February 16th, it'll be seen after that.

By the way, Professor Troutt is one of many academic scholars, researchers, folks at the Rutgers Newark community that will be working with us and providing expertise, insights, sharing their research.

And so, first of many interviews, also check out our interview with Dr. Perry Halkitis on a whole range of issues connected to Corona virus.

Professor, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it.

- It's my pleasure.

Thank you for having me, Steve, take care.

- You got it.

We'll be right back after this.

(grand music) - [Announcer] To watch more State of Affairs with Steve Adubato, find us online and follow us on social media.

- We are honored to be joined by Luisa Charbonneau who is CEO of Braven Health, good to have you with us.

- Hi, Steve, nice to be here, thanks.

- For those who do not know, Braven was announced, it's a collaboration of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, Hackensack Meridian Health, and RWJBarnabas Health.

Pretty unique collaboration.

What is it?

And why does it matter so much?

- So it is the first and only jointly owned and operated Medicare Advantage plan in the state of New Jersey between those three fine institutions.

And it really is all about creating one of the best types of Medicare Advantage plans.

you can have.

Full collaboration between the health systems and the health insurer - And by the way, all of those entities happen to be supporters of what we do to disclose.

But Luisa, let me ask you this.

The term Medicare and then Medicare advantage is used.

And one of the things I've learned in doing healthcare programming is that the assumption that people know what this means that means... What's the difference between Medicare and Medicare advantage?

- So Medicare is the program.

that many people call it original Medicare.

It's the program that is operated by the government, by the centers for Medicare and Medicaid services - Right.

See, that's the... What is that acronym again?

- CMS.

CMS, thank you very much.

I apologize.

And no, no.

And Medicare Advantage is a plan where the government contracts with a variety of health insurers to offer private health insurers to offer additional benefits in addition to what Medicare covers.

- So who... What population is most directly impacted by Braven being established and then being in the marketplace?

- So the senior population in our eight-county service area in New Jersey, anybody who's eligible for Medicare, either by way of age or disability.

- Let me follow up on this.

COVID has impacted the older community.

And by the way, I just want to clarify Braven is in...

The eight counties is a Bergen, Essex.

That's why I have our team here.

Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Middlesex, Monmouth, Ocean, Passaic, and Union.

Thank you so much, team.

Appreciate that.

Lisa, let me ask you this.

COVID and the population we're talking about older than... Is it 65?

- 65 and older or eligible by disability.

- Okay.

Okay.

The impact of COVID, talk about it.

- Very vulnerable population, right?

So COVID's impacted in a couple of ways.

One, you know, it's just a deadly disease and, you know, I say it's like Russian roulette.

You don't know if you're going to get the mild version or the really deadly version.

And seniors and those with disabilities tend to be people with chronic conditions and likely to be more susceptible to serious illness.

So it's been very difficult for them.

And then you add the isolation and loneliness factor in there.

And so we are trying to wrap our arms around this population during this difficult time.

- Devil's advocate question.

So Horizon is what it is.

They are, they are, they...

They cover a significant number of folks in New Jersey.

What is the... Dare I use the term advantage.

What are the advantages of having the two largest health hospital systems in the state as part of this collaboration?

What does that add to the ability to provide affordable quality health insurance for those who need it?

- Now, I think that's a great question.

You know, Horizon has been collaborating with these and other providers for many, many years and this is just sort of a next step in that collaboration where as the closer that you can coordinate between payer and provider to make it as seamless as possible for those members where your provider and your payer are not at odds with each other, but are absolutely in lockstep together to focus on the best for the members.

- So let's play that again.

Payer and provider, I know I'm obsessing over terms.

- No, no.

That's fine.

The provider of the healthcare would be a hospital or hospital system, right?

- Or doctor.

Right.

- The payer would be, in this case, Horizon - Correct.

- Are there other models across the country where providers and payers are coming together to do something like this with a company called whatever?

Or is it the first ever like this?

- No, there are others across the country that have done this.

And what we've found is where you have this level of collaboration, the quality of the care, the ability to offer really strong benefits, flexible benefits is greater because again of that collaboration and the fact that it is a value based arrangement where all of our incentives are aligned - What does that mean?

All of the incentives are what... - So we aren't... neither one of us is trying to make a profit on the other.

We're working together to create, you know, a comprehensive set of benefits and a comprehensive offering to the members.

- And so, let me ask you this.

Healthcare often seems confusing, often seems unnecessarily complicated, but of course, when I asked that people say, "Well, it is.

It is complicated."

Well, is this a way, Luisa, if I can ask you this way, is it in any way to simplify a complex healthcare system?

- That is absolutely the goal.

The goal is to, together, try to simplify this complex beast called healthcare and to make it simpler for the doctors, simpler for the members, and make it more affordable for everybody.

- And by the way, you mentioned for the doctors.

I happened to do a lot of physician leadership work in my other life.

And I know you've had this in your professional life, hearing physicians talk about how complicated it is to do what they do.

I don't mean just clinically but administratively.

So that's part of the mix as well.

I just want to be clear.

- It is.

In fact, one of the hallmarks of the Braven Health entity is we've created a provider council.

We've brought together 14 physicians and office managers from across our eight-county area.

Both primary care doctors, specialists, administrators, large practices, small practices, not just those within Hackensack Meridian or Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas, but all through the community to bring their voice into what we do.

And they're the closest to the patient.

So not only...

It's a twofer.

Not only do we get their voice, but we're also hearing from them what the patients are saying to them.

So they can help advise us how to make things better, how to make things simpler, how to take the red tape out of this, to the extent that that's possible.

It's a big, it's a big ask but we're going to absolutely try our best to do that.

- And we will continue to follow how things play out at Braven Health.

Not only for you, but, and respectfully more importantly for the people you serve every day.

Luisa Charbonneau is CEO of Braven Health.

I want to thank you for joining us.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

- All the best.

I'm Steve Adubato.

Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] State of Affairs with Steve Adubato Is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by PSE&G, The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Turrell Fund, supporting Reimagine Childcare.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey.

NJM Insurance Group.

Johnson & Johnson.

And by IBEW Local 102.

Promotional support provided by CIANJ, and Commerce Magazine.

And by New Jersey Monthly.

- I could feel my lungs fill with oxygen, and I got my life back.

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- The Sharing Network was a lifeline to me when I really needed it.

- We are an organ procurement organization.

- The core purpose of the New Jersey Sharing Network is to save and enhance lives, - To honor those who gave, - Pay tribute to those who received, - Offer hope to those who continue to wait, - And remember the lives lost while waiting - For the gift of life.