Under GOP Healthcare Plan, 24,000 Uninsured Will Die Annually

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.)

Counterpoint in its entirety is archived after midnight ET Monday nights, and is available for at least a year following broadcast in WPKN Radio's Archives.

You can also listen to full unedited interview segments from Counterpoint, which are generally available some time the day following broadcast.

Subscribe to Counterpoint bulletins via our subscriptions page.

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Economist: Under GOP Healthcare Plan, 24,000 Additional Uninsured Will Die Annually

Posted March 15, 2017

Interview with Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, conducted by Scott Harris

President Donald Trump and Republican Party leaders in the House and Senate have followed through on their campaign pledge to repeal and replace Obamacare. But the proposed GOP legislation, dubbed the American Health Care Act, shamelessly fails to live up to Trump’s repeated promises on the campaign trail to provide health insurance to all Americans; ensure that all Americans will have quality health care for less money than Obamacare and to never cut funding for Medicaid. On all three of those important pledges the Republican health care bill flunks.

Analysis of the legislation by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projects that 24 million more Americans would be uninsured by 2026 than under Obamacare, including 14 million who would lose their insurance by 2018. While the GOP bill would lower federal deficits by $337 billion over 10 years, largely as a result of cuts to Medicaid that would reduce enrollment, average health insurance premiums would rise by as much as 20 percent in 2018 and 2019 before falling in later years. If the Republican health care plan were to become law, an estimated 52 million people would be uninsured by 2026, compared to 28 million who lack insurance under the current law.

More than 50 national organizations oppose the GOP’s proposed healthcare plan endorsed by President Trump, including AARP, the American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association, the Federation of American Hospitals and the American Cancer Society. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Gerald Friedman, professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and who served as an economic adviser to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders during his presidential campaign. Here, Friedman assesses the winners and losers of the proposed Republican party health care plan. [Rush transcript.]

GERALD FRIEDMAN: Well, the plan could very well be seen as "wealthcare" instead of "healthcare." The one definite element in the Republican plan that has persisted throughout all various permutations is that they're going to repeal all the taxes that fund the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare. And these are taxes that most people do not know about, because they're only assessed on people earning over $250,000 a year. So they're getting rid of all the taxes, which is about $500 billion over the next decade and all of that money is going to the top one percent of American households, most of it going to the top .01 percent. So those people getting a lot of money.

Now, since you're getting rid of the revenue, you have to find ways to cut spending and they're doing it by doing away with the subsidies associated with the Affordable Care Act, subsidies that have gone to working people. They go to people earning less than four times the poverty line, which gets up to like, $70,000 for families. And most of the subsidies go to people earning much, much less than that.

Second, they are saving money by starting in 2020, basically phasing out the Medicaid expansion program that was part of the Affordable Care Act that mostly blue states, but a few Republican-dominated states, expanded Medicaid to cover people up to 140 percent, under 38 percent of the poverty line and also did away with all sorts of restrictions on Medicaid. And those two measures – the subsidies for people to buy individual health insurance plans and the Medicaid expansion, account for the dramatic drop in the proportion of Americans without health insurance. At this point, over 90 percent of Americans have health insurance, so the Affordable Health Act has worked to extend health insurance to people through subsidies, for people to buy individual plans and Medicaid expansion, and those are both be eliminated. The subsidies go right away, and the Medicaid expansion after 2020.

Also, while they're doing this, things get even worse because they will be pulling the rug out from the whole market structure that's been set up. The Affordable Care Act, by subsidizing people to buy health insurance and requiring that people have health insurance – also that's a requirement that has never been enforced – has established a market for individual health insurance for people to buy health insurance as individuals. That's a market that pretty much did not exist before, because health insurance companies would look at people like "Why do you want to buy health insurance as an individual? It must be that you expect you were going to be sick!" The health insurance companies are ready to walk away from the individual marketplaces if there are no subsidies and no mandate.

The Congressional Budget Office – they're all Republicans over there now. The Republicans took over the House and Senate and they have full control over the Congressional Budget Office, so it's an old Bush administration economist. I'm sure he's competent, but their bias has been to downplay how bad this law is.

BETWEEN THE LINES: A quick question for you. Several years ago, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler and David Himmelstein did a study that they published that talked about some 43,000 people would die if Obamacare was repealed because – although there's a lot of criticism to go around about the Obamacare system, it essentially gave people insurance and access to preventive health care and save lives. Do you have any idea what will happen if 24 million people lose their insurance by 2026 under this Republican plan? How many people would lose their lives?

GERALD FRIEDMAN: Going back to the original study that Woolhandler, Himmelstein and Wilper at Harvard Public Health did – I think it was 2003. I'm not totally sure of the year, but anyway the original study, you'd basically figure a thousand people die for every million people who lose health insurance. So, if you have 24 million people thrown off health insurance, you'd be expecting about 24,000 more or less extra deaths in 2026. You'd expect 14,000 extra deaths next year. Put it in perspective, that's more than the number of Americans who died in 1967 in the Vietnam War, and we'd be doing that every year. People have to think about that in Congress. How many Americans are you willing to kill?

BETWEEN THE LINES: I wanted to ask you about the possibility that this debacle in healthcare could result in some newfound political energy and popular support for Medicare for All, a single-payer system. Are you optimistic we are going to find ourselves moving toward single-player in this country anytime soon?

GERALD FRIEDMAN: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. For two reasons. The first is the public energy, the resistance energy that is building up against the Trump administration and against the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. And second, destroying the Affordable Care Act is showing that we really need to do something dramatic to improve, to salvage health care in America.