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Israel/Palestine:
How 2011 Could See an Escape from a Dead "Peace Process"From Jerusalem Jeff Halper outlines how a game-changing break is possible. Don’t miss this important piece. Pam Martens: how ordinary people can fight back against the big banks. Peter Lee on North Korea Deathwatch: how real is the threat of war? Larry Portis on the dog massacre that was a trial run for the Armenian genocide. Subscribe now! If you find our site useful please: Click here to make a donation. CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents. Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year!
Today's Stories December 13, 2010 Patrick Cockburn December 10 - 12, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Peter Linebaugh Mike Whitney Thomas Volscho Joe Bageant John Barth, Jr. Jeffrey Sommers Jonathan Cook Robert Alvarez Rannie Amiri Franklin Lamb Dean Baker Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers Aurel / Pierre Daum Ramzy Baroud Michael Winship David Ker Thomson Ron Jacobs Christopher Brauchli Missy Beattie Dennis Loo Harvey Wasserman Ingmar Lee Thomas H. Naylor Farzana Versey Ronnie Cummins Sherwood Ross Don Monkerud Stephen Martin Charles R. Larson David Yearsley CP Newswire Poets' Basement Randall and Hahn Website of the Weekend December 9, 2010 Pam Martens Wajahat Ali Sasha Kramer Fatima Bhutto Jimmy Johnson Laura Carlsen Binoy Kampmark Anthony Papa Website of the Day December 8, 2010 Michael Hudson Patrick Cockburn Eric Walberg Mike Roselle Greg Moses Diane Christian Fidel Castro Linn Washington James McEnteer Website of the Day December 7, 2010 Chris Floyd Gareth Porter / Dean Baker Gregory Elich Ralph Nader M. Shahid Alam Dave Lindorff Information Terrorists? David Macaray Linda Ueki Absher Manuel Garcia, Jr. Website of the Day December 6, 2010 Michael Hudson Paul Craig Roberts The US Government's Frontal Assault on Freedom Mike Whitney Sasan Fayazmanesh Steve Breyman Davey D Neve Gordon Greg Moses Mark Weisbrot Ben Terrall Website of the Day December 3 -5, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Darwin Bond-Graham Andy Kroll William Blum Rannie Amiri Ray McGovern Saul Landau / Ramzy Baroud P. Sainath John Carroll, M.D. David Rosen Steven Colatrella Thomas I. Palley Francis Shor Russell Mokhiber Bank Power Mark Weisbrot John V. Whitbeck Sherry Wolf Ronnie Cummins Michael Winship Ron Jacobs Nilofar Suhrawardy Missy Beattie Bill Manson Linh Dinh Bruce E. Levine John Grant David Macaray Yves Engler / Charles R. Larson Scott Borchert Harry Clark David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend December 2, 2010 Michael W. Hudson Paul Craig Roberts Franklin C. Spinney Benjamin Dangl Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Russell Mokhiber David Macaray Ed Moloney Brian McKenna Website of the Day
December 1, 2010 Gareth Porter Wikileaks Exposes Complicity of the Press Paul Craig Roberts Russ Wellen Nikolas Kozloff Conn Hallinan Sheldon Richman Rich Broderick David Solnit Farzana Versey Charles M. Young Charles R. Larson Website of the Day November 30, 2010 Ralph Nader Paul Craig Roberts Bill Quigley Jonathan Cook Dean Baker James McEnteer Tom Engelhardt Sherwood Ross Gina Ulysse Bill Manson Website of the Day
November 29, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Israel Shamir Mike Whitney Lawrence Davidson Winslow Wheeler / John Carroll, MD P. Sainath Carl Finamore David Macaray Dave Lindorff Website of the Day
November 26 - 28, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Winslow T. Wheeler Ramzy Baroud Harry Browne Bill Quigley / Saul Landau Brian Cloughley Fidel Castro Francis Shor Steve Heilig Terrence Paupp Brenda Norrell Missy Beattie Linh Dinh Christopher Brauchli Eric Walberg Ellen Taylor Ron Jacobs Bill Manson Harvey Wasserman Walter Brasch Michael Dickinson Ingmar Lee Gwyneth Leech David Ker Thomson Charles R. Larson Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend November 25, 2010 Michael Hudson Mike Whitney Gareth Porter Sarah Anderson Karl Grossman David Ker Thomson Rajesh Makwana / Adam Parsons Charles R. Larson Website of the Day
November 24, 2010 Jeffrey St. Clair Paul Craig Roberts James Ridgeway Invasion of the Body Scanners: Is TSA Spreading Cancer? Michael Scott Nick Dearden Russell Mokhiber Daniel Moss Farzana Versey Yasin Gaber Dan Beaton Website of the Day November 23, 2010 Pam Martens Patrick Cockburn Ben Rosenfeld / Franklin C. Spinney Dean Baker Ralph Nader Ray McGovern George Wuerthner Don Monkerud Clare Bayard Website of the Day
November 22, 2010 Michael Hudson James Abourezk Paul Craig Roberts Sasan Fayazmanesh Richard Forno Gary Leupp Martha Rosenberg Lawrence Davidson Patrick Bond Michael Dickinson Website of the Day November 19 - 21, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Jeffrey St. Clair Mike Whitney Joanne Mariner Gareth Porter Karen Greenberg Thomas Christie, Pierre Sprey, Franklin Spinney et al. Rannie Amiri Dr. Jim Morgan Haiti's New Normal: Dispatch from Cite Soleil Lawrence Swaim Ramzy Baroud Ron Jacobs Robert Alvarez Russell Mokhiber P. Sainath David Macaray Carl Finamore Brian Tierney Franklin Lamb Gerald E. Scorse Joshua Brollier Missy Beattie Stewart J. Lawrence Brenda Norrell Christopher Brauchli Carol Polsgrove David Ker Thomson Dave Lindorff Jeff Deasy Bill Manson Clifton Ross Charles R. Larson Twain: the Last Word, One Hundred Years Later Richard Estes David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Weekend November 18, 2010 Diana Johnstone Mike Whitney Behzad Yaghmaian Kenneth E. Hartman Norman Solomon Michael Winship Patrick Bond Joel S. Hirschhorn Website of the Day November 17, 2010 Vicente Navarro James Bovard Jonathan Cook Dean Baker Ralph Nader Nick Turse Sherry Wolf Alienation 101: the Online Learning Rip Off Judith Scherr Peter Certo Website of the Day
November 16, 2010 Pam Martens Richard Forno Gareth Porter Harry Browne Peter Lee Alan Farago Franklin Lamb Frank Green Sheldon Richman Thomas H. Naylor Website of the Day November 15, 2010 Michael Hudson Steve Hendricks Paul Craig Roberts Harvey Wasserman Lawrence Davidson Clancy Sigal David Macaray Tom Engelhardt Steven Fake Website of the Day November 12 - 14, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Patrick Cockburn Mike Whitney Ismael Hossein-Zadeh Dean Baker Gareth Porter William E. Alberts Bill Hatch Jonathan Cook Patrick Madden Mystifying the Crisis: Deadlock at the G20 Ramzy Baroud Rannie Amiri James Zogby Ron Jacobs Mark Weisbrot Tanya Golash-Boza Paul Wright Steve Early Martha Rosenberg Celia McAteer Larry Portis Michael Winship Brian McKenna Gerald E. Scorse Christopher Brauchli Roberto Rodriguez Dr. Susan Block J. T. Cassidy Linh Dinh Farzana Versey David Ker Thomson Phil Rockstroh Charles R. Larson David Swanson Saul Landau Kim Nicolini David Yearsley Poets' Basement Website of the Day
November 11, 2010 Peter Linebaugh Paul Craig Roberts Licensed to Kill Bill Quigley David Macaray Dissing the Boss: the NLRB Files a Landmark Complaint on Free Expression in the Workplace Liaquat Ali Khan / Jasmine Abou-Kassem Dedrick Muhammad Robert Bryce Alan Farago Website of the Day November 10, 2010 Allan Nairn Dean Baker Nicola Nasser Missy Beattie Sergio Ferrari Patrick Cockburn Dave Lindorff Mumia: New Lawyer, New Round Sherwood Ross Joshua Frank Website of the Day November 9, 2010 Uri Avnery Mike Whitney Jordan Flaherty Afshin Rattansi Annie Gell Dean Baker Dave Lindorff Stewart J. Lawrence Walter Brasch Website of the Day November 8, 2010 Paul Craig Roberts Thomas Healy David Swanson David Smith-Ferri Ralph Nader Ray McGovern Torture Sans Regrets: Bush's Confessions John Feffer Christopher Ketcham Website of the Day November 5 - 7, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Vijay Prashad Patrick Cockburn Darwin Bond-Graham
Mike Whitney Linn Washington, Jr. Rannie Amiri Ramzy Baroud Larry Portis Gary Leupp William Loren Katz Brian Cloughley Mark Weisbrot Rubén M. Lo Vuolo, Daniel Raventós / Pablo Yanes Joseph Nevins Neve Gordon Alan Farago Stewart J. Lawrence James R. King Ron Jacobs Franklin Lamb James McEnteer Richard Phelps Saul Landau David Ker Thomson The Long Argument Evelyn Pringle Joseph G. Ramsey Until Pigs Fly: the Morning After With Michael Moore Stanley Heller Missy Beattie Harvey Wasserman Billy Wharton Shamus Cooke Linh Dinh Windy Cooler Charles R. Larson Phyllis Pollack David Yearsley Website of the Weekend November 4, 2010 Doug Peacock Andrew Cockburn Iain Boal Paul Craig Roberts Chase Madar Dave Lindorff Russell Mokhiber Laura Flanders Website of the Day November 3, 2010 Alexander Cockburn Franklin C. Spinney Chris Floyd Dissatisfied Mind: Flickers of Hope in a Deadly Political Cycle William Blum Sheldon Richman Stephen Soldz Mark Weisbrot Stewart J. Lawrence Manuel Garcia, Jr. Election Night in Oakland Norman Solomon Website of the Day November 2, 2010 Vincent Navarro Ishmael Reed Uri Avnery Mark Driscoll Mike Whitney Linh Dinh David Macaray Randall Amster Wikilessons: War is a Joke, But It Isn't Funny Betsy Ross Yves Engler Website of the Day
November 1, 2010 Ted Honderich Steven Higgs John Ross Dean Baker Ralph Nader Justin E. H. Smith Marjorie Cohn Scott Boehm Brian Tierney Trish Kahle Martha Rosenberg Bathrobe Erectus: Feting Hugh Hefner Website of the Day
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December 13, 2010 "What is Possible and What is Not"Single Payer and Professor HsiaoBy RUSSELL MOKHIBER Vermont's Governor elect – Peter Shumlin – promised during his campaign this year to deliver single payer health insurance to state's residents. And also earlier this year, the government of Vermont called on Harvard School of Public Health Economics Professor William Hsiao to come up with three health care plans. Plan one – a pure single payer plan. Plan two – a public option plan. And plan three – what Hsiao calls "a viable and practical single payer plan." We reached Professor Hsiao last night working late at his office. Hsiao says he plans to deliver the three plans to Vermont sometime around January 15, 2011. We wanted to know why Professor Hsiao would develop plan one – a pure single payer plan – and then plan three – what he calls "a viable and practical single payer plan." Aren't they the same thing? "In the Vermont first plan, the Vermont legislature calls for comprehensive coverage of services," Hsiao said. "That includes prevention, ambulatory care, in-patient hospital, drugs, and nursing home. That's one form of single payer. Besides universal coverage, plan one calls for covering everything." Hsiao calls this "pure single payer." Taxpayer funded. Get rid of the health insurance companies. Cover everyone. Cover everything. Hsiao says that in putting forth a pure single plan, the Vermont law "ignored reality." The first reality that it ignored – the legal barriers. Take, for example, ERISA (the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.) ERISA prevents states from enacting legislation if it is "related to" an employee benefits plan. Then there are political barriers, Hsiao says. But isn't a pure single payer plan the one Hsiao helped developed for Taiwan? Isn't it the same plan that was featured in the April 2008 PBS television special – Sick Around the World? The PBS special that featured Hsiao? And if he doesn't recommend a pure single payer plan, won't Vermonters ask – why pure single payer for Taiwan and not for Vermont? There are obvious differences between the situation in Taiwan in the 1990s and Vermont today. Before single payer arrived in Taiwan in the mid-1990s, fifty percent of the people in Taiwan had no health insurance. In Vermont, only seven percent have no health insurance (it's ten percent nationally.) "Eighty-five percent of employed people in Vermont are covered with employer insurance," Hsiao says. "Let's take a hypothetical case where health insurance premiums for an employed individual is $4000 a year." "The employer right now pays $3000 of that, the worker pays $1000." "In a pure single payer system, you have to raise that $4000 through income tax," Hsiao says. "The whole $4000 through income tax." "In a pure single payer system, more than half of the employed people in Vermont will be paying more in taxes than they currently pay in premiums," Hsiao said. And Hsiao says that the Vermont pure single payer proposal is even more pure than Taiwan's single payer. "The Taiwanese plan doesn't cover institutional long term care," Hsiao says. "Vermont's pure single payer system would." And Vermont's plan calls for a government agency to run the single payer insurance plan. Taiwan's is a quasi-government agency. This was done, Hsiao says, because Taiwan's civil service rules would make it difficult for physician experts, for example, to be hired by the agency. If it were a government agency, the physician experts would have to pass a series of tests. "The starting position in Taiwan was different from the United States," Hsiao says. "The United States has multiple insurance companies offering insurance and employers already providing insurance. For 85 percent of the employed people in Vermont, they already have employee provided insurance. And on average, the employers provide roughly about 75 percent of the premium." So, are you saying that pure single payer is viable in Vermont, or not? "That is what we are investigating," Hsiao says. "If it is not viable, we would have to change the features." If Hsiao determines that plan number one – pure single payer – is viable, there is no plan number three, right? "They will be the same," Hsiao says. But during the interview, Hsiao clearly signaled that pure single payer for Vermont is not viable. So, plan three – what Hsiao calls "viable single payer" – will be Hsiao's recommended plan for Vermont, right? "That is the likely outcome, yes," Hsiao says. "We will show the state what a pure single payer system will cost, how that will impact on households, the different income levels." It's clear that Hsiao is leaning away from a pure single payer model. He challenges every assumption about "pure single payer." I ask – what about the most basic definition of single payer – one public single payer? "You mean one public payer to providers?" he asks. "Yes," I answer. "Well, Germany has a single payer to providers," Hsiao says. "But Germany has several hundred non profit insurers. So, is that a single payer or not?" "We have to disentangle all of that for Vermont," Hsiao says. "I did not know what I took on when I agreed to this." "But we want to do what is best for the people of Vermont as well as for the American people," Hsiao says. "I can assure you. My heart and mind are devoted to that. I don't even get paid for this project. The people I hire, the people who are doing the modeling – yes they are paid. But personally, I do not get a penny on this." And Hsiao said that he does not do outside consulting. Vermont's health insurance market is dominated by one non profit – Blue Cross and Blue Shield, which takes in 70 to 75 percent of premiums. The rest of the market is split between two for profits – CIGNA and MVP. Can Hsiao conceive of a single payer system that would keep those three health insurance companies in business in Vermont? "I don't know," Hsiao says. "That would not be the ideal situation, but there are legal restrictions." "If you look at ERISA, you will see how difficult it is." Hsiao says that legislatures in states like California that have passed single payer laws "just assumed they could get a waiver from ERISA." "Well, that's a big assumption," Hsiao said. "No state or no political jurisdiction has been able to get a waiver yet from ERISA." "I can tell you I can reduce my workload by half," Hsiao said. "I can assume away a lot of real world problems." There has always been an underlying debate in the single payer community over whether it is more feasible to get single payer at the national level or the state level. Could it be that the state level single payer is not possible? "When our report comes out, you will see what is possible and what is not possible," Hsiao says. Russell Mokhiber edits Single Payer Action.
CounterPunch Print Edition Exclusive! Israel/Palestine: From Jerusalem Jeff Halper outlines how a game-changing break is possible. Don’t miss this important piece. Pam Martens: how ordinary people can fight back against the big banks. Peter Lee on North Korea Deathwatch: how real is the threat of war? Larry Portis on the dog massacre that was a trial run for the Armenian genocide. Subscribe now! If you find our site useful please: Click here to make a donation. CounterPunch books and t-shirts make great presents. Order CounterPunch By Email For Only $35 a Year!
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