Redlining is a discriminatory practice in which services (financial and otherwise) are withheld from potential customers who reside in neighborhoods classified as "hazardous" to investment; these neighborhoods have significant numbers of racial and ethnic minorities, and low-income residents. While the most well-known examples involve denial of credit and insurance, also sometimes attributed to redlining in many instances are: denial of healthcare and the development of food deserts in minority neighborhoods. In the case of retail businesses like supermarkets, the purposeful construction of stores impractically far away from targeted residents results in a redlining effect.

More than 50 years after the practice of redlining was banned, veterans living in neighborhoods where previous residents had been denied home loans or other benefits have a higher incidence of heart disease and other chronic conditions, according to research published last week in JAMA Network Open.

Examining the medical records of nearly 80,000 cardiovascular patients in the Veterans Health Administration against the backdrop of historic Home Owners' Loan Corporation maps and census data, the researchers found that veterans living in neighborhoods once redlined by the federal government had a nearly 13% higher risk of death from any cause and a 15% higher risk of a major heart attack than veterans who lived in the most desirable areas as deemed by the HOLC.

"Even nearly a century after its elimination, redlining is still adversely associated with cardiovascular events nationally," they wrote.

The veterans living in formerly redlined neighborhoods also had a higher incidence of smoking, obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Previous studies also have shown that those living in formerly redlined areas have worse outcomes. The researchers, led by Dr. Salil Deo, a surgeon at the Louis Stokes Veterans Affairs Hospital in Cleveland, sought to determine whether there was any link between neighborhood redlining and cardiovascular health in a large population -- in this case, veterans who live in neighborhoods once deemed undesirable by the federal government.

The Home Owners' Loan Corporation was created in the 1930s by Congress to provide Americans a pathway to homeownership amid the Depression. The HOLC ranked neighborhoods in 200 cities from least to most risky, with the "A" neighborhoods, color-coded as green, considered to be the most likely to go up in value, and "D" neighborhoods, outlined in red, as most at risk for declining property values.

The "D" neighborhoods often were areas with mostly Black residents who subsequently were denied home loans backed by federal insurance programs. The designation denied residents any opportunity for upward mobility, led to disinvestment by companies, and increased segregation.

The Pentagon would not be able to provide gender-affirmation care to transgender troops or travel funds to service members who need abortions under the sweeping annual defense policy bill passed by the House on Friday.

The bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, encompasses a range of routine military issues, including endorsing a 5.2% pay raise for service members next year -- the largest pay increase in two decades.

But the traditionally bipartisan bill became a battleground for culture war issues this year after far-right lawmakers threatened to derail what's considered must-pass legislation if their amendments weren't voted on. House Republican leadership acquiesced, and the bans on transgender health care and coverage of abortion-related expenses -- along with a host of conservative priorities -- were added to the NDAA during this week's debate on the House floor.

But adding those amendments turned Democrats against what is typically a bipartisan bill. While the NDAA advanced out of the House Armed Services Committee last month in a bipartisan vote, the bill passed the House on Friday in a largely party-line, 219-210 vote. Four Republicans voted against the bill, and four Democrats supported it.

"What was once an example of compromise and functioning government has become an ode to bigotry and ignorance. Attacks on reproductive rights, access to basic health care, and efforts to address our country's history of racism and marginalization of huge swaths of our country will worsen our recruitment and retention crisis, make our military less capable, and do grievous harm to our national defense and national security," Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, along with the top Democrats on each of the committee's subpanels, said in a joint statement Thursday night.

But the far-right House Freedom Caucus, which was the driving force behind the amendment fight, hailed the bill as a conservative win.

"A week ago, this bill to many of us looked untenable," Freedom Caucus Chairman Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., said at a news conference ahead of the vote. "We're here to tell you today that this is a huge victory."