Posted on 04/26/2010 8:27:34 AM PDT by Nachum
Donald Berwick, CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, was nominated by President Obama last week to be administrator for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the CMS administrator does more than make sure Medicare and Medicaid pay claims in a more or less accurately and timely fashion. The office defines the quality of health care for every insurance plan, sets reimbursement rates for physicians in Medicare and Medicaid, and decides what treatments are more "valuable" than others.
Berwick will get control of the practice of medicine. Can he or anyone be trusted with such power? Berwick, a former pediatrician, has made safer and patient-centered care his life's mission. His institute sponsors a lot of pilot projects to promote quality, including one he pledged would save 100,000 lives. (The venture did not demonstrably hit the target.) In a Health Affairs article last year, he "argued "for a radical transfer of power and a bolder meaning of 'patient-centered care,' whether in a medical home or in the current cathedral of care, the hospital."
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
The list, ping
ping
He told his UK audience: “I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do.”
Oh, really?
This attitude summs up the left’s contempt for individual consumer choice and markets:
“I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do.”
This statement can apply to every industry. Is food production and distribution massive and complex? Is private transportation production and distribution complex? How can consumers possibly make informed choices about products as complex as autos and cereal? Have you seen the complex specifications for autos? Have you seen the complex list of ingredients and nutritional information for a typical breakfast cereal?
My entire educaion on business and economics has been wasted. I need some retraining to adjust to the wisdom of our wise leaders. How does one acquire the vast knowledge to replace individual choices offered by markets?
Really. Our ‘Betters’ always know what we need and want far better than we ever could.
If our stores sold only oat bran and toilet paper, many difficult choices would disappear, and life would be much better, and more equal for all.
“Cruise Ship” medical care centers across the borders hospitals are looking like worthwhile investments.
I can’t resist reminding everyone:
State Senator Benton hits Senator Patty Murray with Viagra video (”Viagra for Sex Offenders”)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2497991/posts
no way will this ever be affordable..this is the same kind of crap the brought russia down..bad economics will always be bad economics
Am I wrong thinking that this health care idea is going to be repealed or have the Republicans legislators decided that it will be fine after all?
It is not so easy to accomplish the Cloward-Piven strategy, but barry the bastard and his democrap party are succeeding even beyond their wildest dreams!
When they are ultimately proven wrong, the market is blamed and citizens given "incentives" to make "better" choices. When tax breaks and subsidies prove inadequate to the task and private "arrangements" start taking the place of mandates, that is when the State's facade of helpfulness begins to drop in favor of something more insistent and then, threatening. The progression is inevitable and only a matter of time.
“If our stores sold only oat bran and toilet paper, many difficult choices would disappear, and life would be much better, and more equal for all.”
Your post infers that choosing toilet paper is simple. Choice of toilet paper is rather complex. There are a number of product features that are difficult to evaluate. Perhaps you envision a world with just one brand of toilet paper. I see many different brands of toilet paper when I visit a store.
Stores should sell this paper product. And oat bran. More choices than that is not something that I can handle in a responsible manner.
If less than 60% of doctors don’t quit the business in the next few months, I will be amazed.
i bet they are giddy with excitement over how easy this has been..
The triangulation of their current work is proof of that! If they had found the American people a force to reckon with during the health cabal bill, they would not be so emboldened to now ignore the American people and pass amnesty for the illegal invaders. The democraps see these things coming across the border as potential democrap votes, nothing more. All ethnic groups are merely things to exploit int he democrat party calculus. Sadly, the exploited seem to like that!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.