Dr. Robert Zarr: Single-Payer is The Only System that Can Achieve Universal Health Care

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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Sanders: Single-Payer is Only System that Can Achieve Universal Health Care

Posted Jan. 20, 2016

Interview with Robert Zarr, president of Physicians for a National Health Program, conducted by Scott Harris

One of the defining issues separating the two major candidates vying for the Democratic party's presidential nomination is disagreement on the need to establish a single-payer health care system in the United States. While independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders advocates such a system, sometimes referred to as Medicare for All, his opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the proposal would be too expensive for taxpayers and is not politically viable.

Clinton and her campaign have accused Sanders of promoting a plan that would do away with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, and effectively end Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health program and other government healthcare benefits. In response, Sanders asserts his proposal would provide universal health care for the first time in U.S. history, repairing the major deficiencies in Obamacare that has left 29 million Americans without health insurance and many more uninsured. The U.S., Sanders repeatedly reminds his audiences, is the only industrial nation in the world today without a universal health care system.

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke Dr. Robert Zarr, president of the group Physicians for a National Health Program and a board-certified pediatrician at Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C. Here, Dr. Zarr assesses the validity of Clinton's criticisms of Sanders' advocacy of a single-payer system and the relative strengths and weaknesses of President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

DR. ROBERT ZARR: Single-payer national health insurance, as it's described in a physicians' proposal that was published in JAMA (Journal of The American Medical Assocation) back in 2003, and as it's largely represented in two pieces of legislation – HR 676 which is John Conyers' bill as well as Sanders' companion bill, which is 1782 – would take a program called Medicare that been around, established since 1965 and improve it and expand it. In fact, the title of HR 676, which is Conyers' single-payer bill is called "Expanded and Improved Medicare for All." So, to say that there would be any dismantling is simply not true, it would build on what we have currently in this country, which is single-payer for Americans over the age of 65.

I think it's more accurate to say we would take funds to pay for the programs that Hillary Clinton has listed – take that money and roll it into a Medicare fund and by doing that then you have enormous administrative savings. And it's through that administrative savings that you see at least $400 billion saved a year, which can then be a big part to describe how we can provide every American finally, with a national health insurance card, which means very, very generous basket of benefits from birth to death. That's really what needs to be said to the American public. I wouldn't use the the word "dismantling;" it's not quite capturing the essence of Medicare for All, which is taking a program that runs fairly efficiently. We're talking about an overhead of about less than 3 percent, which is in huge contrast to private insurance companies, which runs in the double digits, often as high as 18 percent, [therefore] taking Medicare's administrative efficiency there and using it to provide care for everybody.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dr. Robert Zarr, Hillary Clinton places her bets on reforming and expanding the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare, to get to a more inclusive system moving towards universal health care, whereas Bernie Sanders says we really have to bypass the current structure of the ACA. Is it possible to reform and expand the Affordable Care Act to move toward universal health care? Or do we really have to moveto an entirely different system as Bernie Sanders' claims?

DR. ROBERT ZARR: It's not really a matter of my opinion. It's a matter of science. It's a matter of listening to data. So, I think at the end of the day, if someone says to you, we've got more than two decades of really solid, foundational health policy research that shows hands down that there is no other way that we know of in the world to provide health care from the day you're born to the day you die, give you very, very generous basket of benefits and do it a very efficient and cost-effective manner and not single-payer, it would be false and misguiding if I said anything else. Physicians for a National Health Program is, as you know, a nonpartisan organization, and being a nonprofit, we don't endorse candidates. We're about telling the truth. And I think that's why so much of the world looks us as an example of where facts really lie.

So, this really has very little with my opinion and it has to do with facts. And the facts will never change. The facts are that we cannot continue to rely on a system that depends on a for-profit driven industry whose main motive is profit for their shareholders. We need to move to a system that is efficient and encourages quality, is equitable and provides for every American without bankrupting the country and individuals for the years to come. Now that's the truth, and whether we choose to believe that or not, that's one thing. But we're really an organization who's tasked with analyzing data to guide sound health care policy. Politics is a whole other discussion which I am not an expert. But I can tell you from my health policy perspective, there are few people in this country who would disagree with the facts.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dr. Robert Zarr, as we close here, what is your hope for the debate over single-payer in this 2016 presidential campaign?

DR. ROBERT ZARR: Physicians like myself and the public at large are thrilled that we're talking about this again. The majority of physicians support the creation of national health insurance. We've had survey after survey of the American public who support expanding and improving Medicare. So my hope is this kind of issue be raised again and again during the next few months so that we have a chance to educate and I hope also, to activate our population in this country to do something about this, because there is a solution to our nightmare and it's called single-payer national health insurance.

For more information, visit Physicians for A National Health Program at pnhp.org.