Friday, July 9, 2010

Obama Adds to Long List of Big Government Czars

Do any of you readers know who Donald M. Berwick is?
Most likely not, but the medical world, American hospitals and doctors do.
He is known to be a crusader against the American health care system and its worse enemy. [I] His idea for fixing the problems of the healthcare system is to destroy it and rebuild it from foundation up. He is considered a revolutionary and congressional legislators, Democratic and Republican alike, are not comfortable with his ideology … so President Obama has made him the Medicare/Medicaid czar by appointment when Congress was closed for the Independence Day break.

The objective of the Obama Nation administration is to expand Medicaid to cover 16 million more people and still reduce cost by $0.5 trillion. The cost of running the 4,400-person agency is a budget of $800 billion that is considered to be the largest insurance company in the US[II]
Progressives view him as a health-care hero and conservatives believe that Berwick would cut costs by rationing care. [III] His ideology is strictly out of the progressive/Marxist game book:
and that any healthcare funding plan that is just equitable, civilized, and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate.
Slipping in the appointment of Dr. Berwick as a czar, one of many in the Obama Nation administration (an alarming growing list, stacked much like Obama’s Supreme Court nominations) on July 7th 2010 during a congressional recess, a trick used by previous presidents, is alarming enough; but his quoted material is just alarming:
It’s not a question of whether we will ration care. It is whether we will ration with our eyes open, and right now, we are doing it blindly[IV]
Berwick’s background is a 63-year-old pediatrician, Harvard University professor and leader of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a health care think tank that works to develop and implement concepts for improving patient care. The American Hospital Association and AARP were among the groups that support Dr. Berwick. [V]
Dr. Berwick’s vision for health care, according to the Institute of Medicine:
       No needless deaths.
       No needless pain or suffering.
       No helplessness in those served or serving.
       No unwanted waiting.
       No waste.
       No one left out.
Dr. Berwick’s principles have been adopted by the approach of the UK National Health Services and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
NICE decides which healthcare people will get and which they won’t[VI]
Philip Klein of The American Spectator called him Obama’s rationing man. The chairman of NICE insists the critics are lying. [VII]
Another quote of Dr. Berwick:
You could have protected the wealthy and the well, instead of recognizing that sick people tend to be poorer and that poor people tend to be sicker and that any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, MUST redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate. Excellent health care is, by definition, redistributional. [VIII]
Dr. Berwick authored many publications. [IX]
Donald Berwick is standing in a long line of poorly picked government czars as Glenn Beck recently pointed out. [X]


[I] The Revolutionary; Neil Swidey; The Boston GlobeJanuary 4, 2004.
[III] GOP: Medicare pick favors ‘rationing’; Jennifer Haberkorn; PoliticoMay 12th 2010.
[IV] Obama Bypasses Senate for New Medicare ChiefThe Washington PostJuly 7th 2010.
[V] A clear example of how AARP is not truly looking out for senior citizens, but instead going along with the progressive political movement. [Truth About ObamaCareAmerican Reformation MovementAugust 10th 2009]
[VI] Not NICEThe Weekly Standard; Jeffrey Anderson; April 29th 2010.
[VII] Official Defends British Health Service Against ‘Outrageous Lies’; Harris Gardiner; New York Times; August 21st 2009.
[VIII] CMS Nominee Donald Berwick’s Radical Agenda; Health Care News, The Heartland Institute; Ben Domenech; May 12th 2010.
[IX] Wikipedia
[X] Glenn Beck Challenges Robert GibbsMediaite; Frances Martel; July 8th 2010

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