Dr. Irene Aguilar: Colorado Voters Could Enact Nation's First Single-Payer Health Care System this November

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.

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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.

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Colorado Voters Could Enact Nation's First Single-Payer Health Care System this November

Posted June 8, 2016

Interview with Irene Aguilar, Democratic Colorado state senator and practicing physician, conducted by Scott Harris

As the Democratic presidential primary campaign between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders concludes, one of the defining issues that separated the two candidates was Sanders and his supporters' advocacy for establishing a single-payer, universal health care system in the United States. While the proposal, sometimes referred to as "Medicare for All," was promoted by Sanders as necessary to provide health insurance to the estimated 32 million still not covered by the Affordable Care Act. Clinton opposed the idea as too expensive for taxpayers and not politically viable.

As proponents pledge to pursue their objective of instituting a federal U.S. single-payer health care plan, as exists in virtually every other industrialized nation in the world, a new battleground for the issue has opened up in the state of Colorado. This November, Colorado voters will be able to vote for or against Amendment 69, a measure that would establish a single-payer, universal health care system for all of the state’s residents.

Advocates of the measure, known as ColoradoCare, say the goal is to provide health care to all Colorado residents regardless of financial circumstance, by collecting a premium based on resident's income. with an annual budget totaling $25 billion. Between the Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Colorado state Sen. Irene Aguilar, a Democrat representing Denver County and the only practicing physician in Colorado’s state legislature. Here, Dr. Aguilar talks about why she supports the health care ballot measure and the health industry opponents that are campaigning to defeat Amendment 69 this fall. (Rush transcript)

DR. IRENE AGUILAR: Under the Affordable Care Act, there's a provision that allows states to get a waiver for innovations starting in 2017. And the state needs to show that their idea for a waiver would cover at least as many people with at least the same level of benefit and not cost people anything more than (what) an actuary would find to increase the deficit more than what would happen under the ACA over the next 10 years. So Amendment 69 would allow Colorado to create a universal health care system that meets those criteria.

BETWEEN THE LINES: What would single-payer cost if Colorado voters approve Amendment 69 this November?

DR. IRENE AGUILAR: Well, for each state it would be tied to what your state currently spends on health care. So we estimate that people, in the form of premiums and out-of-pocket cost spend about $30 billion a year, or will be spending about $30 billion a year in 2019 in Colorado for health care. And under Amendment 69, we could cut that amount to $25 billion by getting rid of the administrative overhead, simplifying billing and by also getting rid of the incentive to order more tests than are needed, and helping us do some negotiating for prices based on value of health care.

BETWEEN THE LINES: State Sen. Aguilar, there's a lot of discussion about the consequences of adopting a single-payer health care program as we debate it in this country, but also when it comes to other countries who have long had, in most other industrial nations of the world, of course, do have single-payer universal health care. But there's a discussion about rationing. It's a disjointed discussion, because when we have so many millions of people in this country without health insurance, we have a natural system of rationing. But there is a concern about many who have insurance now, through a private insurer, that somehow a single-payer system would invoke some kind of rationing that would be some kind of consequence for them and their families.

DR. IRENE AGUILAR: When this discussion comes up, I always remind people first, that unfortunately, we already have rationing in our country. If rationing became necessary, and I don't think it would, but if it did become necessary, we would have what I like to call rational rationing, where it was based on what kinds of evidence there was, a treatment was beneficial to people. But more important than that, most people who are working full-time are still pretty healthy and they're under the impression that they have great insurance. You meet very few people who've developed some kind of serious illness or complications who have that impression because you don't see what the faults are in our current system until you really need to depend on it.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Dr. Aguilar, as we close out here, tell our listeners a bit about the forces lining up for and against this referendum vote. And folks like the billionaire Koch brothers who will certainly be contributing to defeat single-payer health care in Colorado.

DR. IRENE AGUILAR: Yes, and their money will be hidden because they can give it in a different way, and they're working through Americans for Prosperity in our state. The other groups lining up of course, are the people who are making huge profits off our health care system and I call it the medical industrial complex. So, for example, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield has donated a million dollars to defeat our amendment. And what I remind people of is, that that's a million dollars of your premium dollars that they have that they're so concerned about losing access to the profits that their shareholders have they're willing to risk your premium dollar to try and defeat this.

And then, interestingly, a number of hospitals are contributing against this effort. Our only for-profit hospital system in our state is HealthONE, and they've been a large contributor. But even our faith-based hospitals that are supposed to be there to help guarantee access to health care are contributing money, Centura Health and SCL Health, which are owned by different nun groups. So it's really fascinating that the $3 trillion a year that the United States spends on health care that makes it really one of the most lucrative investment markets in our state, those folks are really being careful to try and protect their interests and their investments in the future.

For more information, visit Colorado Care website at coloradocare.org; Physicians for A National Health Program at pnhp.org; Health care for all Colorado at healthcareforallcolorado.org; on Facebook at Facebook.com/HealthCareforAllColorado.