B2 STOJBOOKS & ENTERTAINMENT JANUARY 24 – JANUARY 30, 2020

ROBERT GAUTHIER/LOS ANGELES TIMES/TNS

Host Alicia Keys performs during the 61st Grammy Awards at Staples Center in Los Ange-les on Feb. 10, 2019.

BY GEORGE VARGASAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE/TNS

Alicia Keys is wasting no time promoting her upcoming seventh studio album, “Alicia,” which will be released March 20.

On Tuesday morning, the 15-time Grammy Award-win-ner announced her “Alicia — The World Tour” 2020 concert trek, which opens June 5 in Dublin, Ireland.

The announcement came just five days before Keys was set to host the 62nd annual Grammy Awards telecast on CBS for the second consecu-tive year.

The North American leg of her tour opens July 28 in Flor-ida at Daily’s Place in Jackson-ville. It concludes Sept. 22, al-so in Florida, at Hard Rock Live Arena in Miami. All the North American dates and cities ap-pear below, along with ticket information.

‘Underdog’ previewKeys gave a one-song pre-

view of her upcoming album with the Jan. 9 release of the video for her new single, “Un-derdog,” which she co-wrote with Ed Sheeran.

“Some people may think of the word ‘underdog’ as a nega-tive word, but I see it as a pow-erful word representing peo-ple who may be underesti-mated and yet still rise to the challenge and exceed expecta-tions,” Keys said in a statement.

“I love this song so much be-cause it’s about real life and re-al people and our experienc-es. We’ve all been in a place in

our lives where we’ve had to defy the odds. It’s never easy. One of my favorite lyrics in the song is: They say I would never make it, but I was built to break the mold. I don’t think there’s a person on the planet that hasn’t felt that way.”

Prince specialKeys will follow her Grammy

hosting duties with a perfor-mance on the CBS TV special, “Let’s Go Crazy — The Gram-my Salute to Prince.” The other artists booked to appear on the special, which will not be tele-vised live and is set to air later in the year, range from Foo Fight-ers, John Legend and Juanes to Beck, Gary Clark Jr. and mem-bers of the late Prince’s former band, The Revolution.

Tickets for Keys’ 2020 North American concert tour go on sale to the general public on Jan. 27, at 10 a.m. at ticketmas-ter.com and livenation.com.

Tour datesTuesday, July 28, Jackson-

ville, Daily’s PlaceThursday, July 30, Atlanta,

Cadence Bank Amphitheatre at Chastain Park

Sunday, Aug. 2, Nashville, Tenn., Ascend Amphitheater

Tuesday, Aug. 4, Charlotte, N.C., Charlotte Metro Credit Union Amphitheatre

Wednesday, Aug. 5, Balti-more, MECU Pavilion

Friday, Aug. 7, Washington, D.C., The Theater at MGM Na-tional Harbor

Sunday, Aug. 9, Philadel-phia, The Met Philadelphia

Tuesday, Aug. 11, Boston, Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion

Friday, Aug. 14, New York, Radio City Music Hall

Sunday, Aug. 16, Toronto, Budweiser Stage

Tuesday, Aug. 18, Detroit, Michigan Lottery Amphithe-atre at Freedom Hill

Wednesday, Aug. 19, Cin-cinnati, PNC Pavilion at River-bend Music Center

Friday, Aug. 21, Cleveland, Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica

Tuesday, Aug. 25, Chicago, Huntington Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island

Wednesday, Aug. 26, Kansas City, Mo., Starlight Theatre

Thursday, Aug. 27, Denver, Bellco Theatre

Sunday, Aug. 30, Seattle, WAMU Theater

Monday, Aug. 31, Vancouver, British Columbia, Pepsi Live at Rogers Arena

Wednesday, Sept. 2, Port-land, Ore. Theatre of the Clouds at Moda Center

Friday, Sept. 4, San Francis-co, The Masonic

Tuesday, Sept. 8, Los Ange-les, Greek Theatre

Friday, Sept. 11, San Diego, Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre

Saturday, Sept. 12, Phoenix, Arizona Federal Theatre (Com-erica Theater)

Tuesday, Sept. 15, Houston, Smart Financial Center at Sug-ar Land

Wednesday, Sept. 16, Dallas, The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory

Saturday, Sept. 19, Orlando, Dr. Phillips Center for the Per-forming Arts

Sunday, Sept. 20, Tampa, Hard Rock Center

Tuesday, Sept 20, Miami, Hard Rock Live Arena

Alicia Keys announces new album and world tour

women at department store beauty counters, is starting from scratch, Rogers said.

Rogers and Mayberry McKis-sack said the ultimate goal, be-tween Fashion Fair and Black Opal, is to provide options for a range of budgets.

To succeed and attract young-er consumers, industry insiders say Rogers and Mayberry McKis-sack will have to embrace the re-alities of the beauty industry.

Online influenceToday’s beauty ecosystem is

ruled by “influencers” like Yursik who share their thoughts about products and demonstrate their application on websites and You-Tube channels with their thou-sands, and sometimes millions, of followers.

Black beauty influencers have given a face to consumers who for years had never seen their images reflected in the cosmet-ics they purchased. In turn, the influencers’ audiences — peo-ple of color — have flocked to

the makeup, skincare and hair brands they see on women who look like them.

While older consumers of Black beauty products rely on advertising to help them decide what makeup to buy, younger consumers — the coveted “Gen-Zennials” between the ages of 18 and 34 — are buying what their friends and family are wearing

and favorite beauty bloggers are buying, said Toya Mitchell a se-nior consumer analyst at Mintel.

Another challengeSales channels will be another

challenge. Fashion Fair, Mitchell noted, was primarily sold in de-partment stores, some of which have closed.

Yursik, who has more than

247,000 followers on her Face-book page, regularly tries out beauty brands and shares her thoughts with her audience. She said she’s excited to see what her 80-year-old mother’s favorite makeup has in store for her.

“Fashion Fair will have a differ-ent road ahead of them,” Yursik said. “They could benefit from celebrating what they used to do and partnering with influencers in a smart way … change their approach to marketing, to prod-uct development and launching new products.”

Black Opal planRogers and Mayberry McKiss-

ack said they are already tackling these challenges. They are well-equipped with market research, even taking notes from wom-en who’ve stopped them on the street with questions and sugges-tions.

Rogers said they are also work-ing on developing eco-friendly products with top-notch ingre-dients and are crafting a mes-sage they are certain will speak to Black women.

At Black Opal, a new website is in the works, along with new marketing to speak to custom-ers, Rogers said. A new line of sk-

incare products is scheduled to launch in 2020. They are reach-ing out to makeup artists for feedback and to promote their products.

‘Strong legacy’In the meantime, Mayberry

McKissack and Rogers are bet-ting Black women will be excited to support two Black women re-building two decades-old brands to make them look good.

That’s a smart strategy, accord-ing to Ahmad Islam, CEO of Near North Side-based marketing and advertising firm Ten35. The leg-acy of being an iconic, Black-owned brand is one of Fashion Fair’s greatest strengths, he said.

“It’s a brand that has a strong legacy of being relevant in the Black community, which is a sol-id place from which to build,” Is-lam said. “Any time you’re trying to bring a brand back, you have to understand where the brand was, what it stood for and why it was successful.”

Mintel’s Mitchell agreed.“There is a level of trust we

share with Black-owned beauty businesses,” Mitchell said. “If you are creating for me and mine and we share the same issues, I trust that you got it right.”

COMEBACKfrom B1

DAVE KOTINSKY/GETTY IMAGES FOR DIAMOND BALL/TNS

Guests visit the Fenty Beauty counter during Rihanna’s 5th Annual Diamond Ball Benefitting The Clara Lionel Foundation at Cipriani Wall Street on Sept. 12, 2019 in New York City.

Book examines ‘cost exposure’ and access to health care servicesDR. GLENN ALTSCHULERSPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

In 1968, in a seminal article, economist Mark Pauly argued that health insurance drives down prices for consumers in an artifi-cial way. Insulated from the ac-tual price, insured people will be motivated to use more and more health care services.

Universal coverage, Pauly im-plied, had perverse consequenc-es; to prevent escalating costs for society as a whole health in-surance should force patients to make cost-benefit trade-offs.

In the ensuing decades, Chris-topher Robertson demonstrates, “a cost exposure consensus” has emerged and insurance plans have included deductibles, co-payments, and co-insurance as rationing mechanisms.

“In “Exposed,’’ Robertson, a professor of law at the University of Arizona and former student of Elizabeth Warren, makes a com-pelling case that “cost exposure” reduces access to otherwise unaf-fordable services and does not re-duce costs or enhance decisions and outcomes.

His book is an important addi-tion to a debate that is sure to be front and center in the 2020 elec-tions.

Co-payments studyMore often than not, Robert-

son demonstrates, cost-sharing is counterproductive. Deductibles, and co-payments, for example, increase emergency room visits and hospital stays. Patients with chronic conditions often stop tak-ing medications (or chemothera-py) prescribed for them.

A RAND Corporation study found that eliminating co-pay-ments would reduce hospital-izations in the United States by 80,000-90,000 people each year, emergency department visits by 30,000-35,000, and generate sav-ings of at least $1 billion.

Out-of-pocket exposure is also associated with anxiety, depres-sion, higher diastolic blood pres-sure, and increased risk for suicide.

As cost-exposure reduces ac-cess to health care, it also adds substantially to financial cri-ses. Sick people work less or lose their jobs; family members stay at home to care for them.

‘Financial fragility’As many as one-third of cancer

survivors report that they them-selves or a relative went into debt (on credit cards, home equity loans, or payday loans, where in-terest rates can be exorbitant) to pay for treatment.

A substantial percentage of Americans who declare bank-ruptcy have medical bills of at least $5,000, not including health care expenses charged to their credit cards.

Obviously, poor people are hardest hit by the escalating costs of health care services.

Policymakers, Robertson re-veals, define “financial fragility”

as a lack of liquid assets equal to three months of income or an in-ability to access $2,000 in 30 days, a condition impacting 39-46% of Americans.

While the median net worth of all Americans is $97,000, Rob-ertson adds, the figure is about $17,000 for African Americans and $21,000 for Latinos. Because much of net worth is tied up in housing, sickness contributes sig-nificantly to the number of fore-closures.

Different approachRobertson applauds legislation

prohibiting cost exposure for cer-tain preventive services, includ-ing wellness visits with physicians in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

He supports “a broader strat-egy” that eliminates deductibles or copays for procedures or pre-scription drugs “known to pro-vide good value to patients.”

In a tacit acknowledgement that it may be neither feasible or efficient to calculate the effective-ness of every procedure or medi-cation, Robertson prefers an ad-mittedly radical approach that “tailors cost exposure burdens to each beneficiary’s ability to pay.”

Working elsewhereScaling health insurance in

this way, which would include “means testing Medicare,” he claims, will ensure access to every person who needs it, avoid “false negatives (where patients decline valuable care) and false positives (where patients consume waste-ful care).”

Many other countries, including Canada and New Zealand, Rob-ertson points out, have vastly re-duced or eliminated cost exposure and spend much less of GDP on health care.

When surveyed, 19% of Ameri-cans, 35% of Canadians, and 41% of New Zealanders declare that their health care system works well.

Like other descendants from the British Empire, Robertson concludes, “we might well be happy with an altogether differ-ent path.”

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He wrote this review for the Florida Cou-rier.

REVIEW“Exposed: Why Our Health Insurance Is Incomplete and What Can Be Done about It’’ by Christopher T. Robertson. Harvard University Press, 248 pages, $39.95