Dr. Steffie Woolhandler: Aetna, Other Insurance Companies Leave Obamacare, Show Need for Medicare For All

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

Listen to Scott Harris Live on WPKN Radio

Between The Lines' Executive Producer Scott Harris hosts a live, weekly talk show, Counterpoint, from which some of Between The Lines' interviews are excerpted. Listen every Monday evening from 8 to 10 p.m. EDT at www.WPKN.org (Follows the 5-7 minute White Rose Calendar.)

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Aetna, Other Insurance Companies Leave Obamacare, Illustrating Need for Medicare For All

Posted Aug. 24, 2016

Interview with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of the group Physicians for a National Health Program and a professor at the City University of New York's School of Public Health at Hunter College, conducted by Scott Harris

Aetna, based in Hartford, Connecticut and the nation’s third largest insurance company, announced last week that next year it will be pulling out of 11 of 15 states where it offers policies in the Affordable Care Act’s health exchanges. The company says that it has lost $430 million in profits since it began offering individual policies on the ACA exchanges in January 2014. Aetna complained that those purchasing insurance policies are sicker and costlier than expected.

However, news reports and internal company documents indicate that the move to exit Obamacare came in response to the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to block the proposed merger between Aetna and Humana, the nation’s fifth largest insurer. Apart from Aetna, other insurance companies, including United Healthcare, Humana and Blue Cross-Blue Shield also have plans to leave ACA health exchanges in 2017.

Between The Line’s Scott Harris spoke with Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, co-founder of the group Physicians for a National Health Program and a professor at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health at Hunter College. Here, she examines the decision by Aetna to pull out of state ACA exchanges, the problems of coverage created by for-profit medicine and her support for establishing a single-payer, Medicare-for-All system that would provide universal, affordable care to everyone in the U.S. (Rush transcript)

DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Well, Aetna's exodus illustrates what a crazy idea it was to think that you could get to universal coverage through the private health industry. The private health insurance industry makes money by taking your premiums and providing as little care as possible. And they're only willing to stay in the market as long as they make a profit by doing that, by taking premiums and not paying out too much in care. And then with the ACA, they took the premiums but people were sick and needed the care, and they said "We're not going to participate. We can't make a profit and we're taking our marbles and going home." So, certainly Aetna pulled out, several of the other major insurers have pulled out of market, a fewer numbers in counties than Aetna just did. And in many parts of the country, there's only one option under the exchange, and of course that's not really an option because you have to pay a fine on your taxes if you don't enroll with the insurance company, so you basically have a "take it or leave it" situation in many parts of the country. There's currently one big county, Pinal County in Arizona, that has 400,000 people and no insurance company saying they're going to offer an exchange plan next year.

Now this can change, because the bids on the exchange plans go in October. But it definitely illustrates that this was a crazy idea to think you're getting to universal health care through profit-seeking, private insurance companies. What we needed to do, what we still need to do is go for a single-payer, Medicare For All type program, where everybody's in a giant risk pool. Everybody's in, nobody's out.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dr. Woolhandler, what's the effect of the people looking for insurance on these health exchanges when there is only one company? Does that mean the rates, the premiums paid will go sky high? Is that the net effect here?

DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Well, they won't necessarily go sky high, relative to what they've been, which has already been pretty high. They will be higher, there are studies showing that have in markets with only one or two insurance companies vs. markets with three to five insurance companies, the rates are higher. So, yes, the consumer will be paying a higher rate, but the problem of course, is the rates on the Obamacare exchange insurance are very high to begin with. So for someone my age, and I'm in my early in 60s, if I go to buy a bronze plan, which is the cheapest plan available to me in New York state, if I go to buy a bronze plan, I have to take $5,000 out of my pocket and pay the premium. And then if I get sick, I've got a $5,000 deductible. I need to take another $5,000 out of my pocket. $10,000 total I've paid out of pocket before my insurance pays one penny.

So, it's an extremely expensive insurance for a middle-income person to be thinking about paying that kind of money out for care. So yes, having a monopoly, as will occur in many counties and states, makes matters worse, it makes the premiums higher. The premiums are quite high even in places like New York, where there's not a monopoly at this point.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dr. Woolhandler, as you've pointed out, the United States stands alone in the industrialized world of countries that don't have a universal health care system in place; therefore, we have one of the most expensive systems with an enormous number of people left out. But as I understand it, the ACA, the Obamacare system in place now, has covered an additional 21 million people. But that leaves 29 million or 30 million people still uninsured and many more underinsured even among that number. What can you tell us about the issue of the United States and its unique situation here? Not such a good situation here.

DR. STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER: Well you're absolutely right with those numbers. Less than half of the uninsured have received coverage so that 20 million have been covered; about 27 million remain uninsured. And to me, as a physician, 27 million uninsured people is not acceptable. And furthermore, even if the Obamacare legislation had been rolled out as initially enacted, if all 50 states had enacted Medicaid, there still would have been tens of millions of people uninsured. And not just in the short term. Over the long term, the Congressional Budget Office is saying 26 million people remain uninsured. So we have not gotten to universal health care and we're not getting there with the Obamacare legislation, which is why we need to go with Medicare for All.

All other developed countries do use some form of national health insurance. Most of them rely on nonprofit national health insurance. They spend 40 percent less per capita than we do on health care. People in other developed nations, like Canada or the Netherlands, live two to three years longer. So where they have these national health programs, you get more care, better health, and you spend less. You know, the United States is really unique among the developed countries in having a subsidized private insurance system that is extremely expensive and doesn't cover everyone.

Learn more about the merits and cost of a single-payer health care by visiting Physicians for A National Health Program at pnhp.org.