VIDEO: Obama's new appointee to head Medicare, Don Berwick waxing poetic on Britain's NHS

NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement ^ | 5/7/10

[Nachum]

Innovation Live was a free event held at the QEII Conference Centre in London on 12 November to explore and stimulate innovation in healthcare.

This conference was for anyone with an interest in transforming healthcare through the development of new services and different ways of working. Delegates experienced an enriching mix of speakers and breakout sessions. There was also an interactive exhibition showcasing practical projects and an Open Café where the participants took charge. ....

-The afternoon began with IHI President/CEO Don Berwick. His inspirational speech reminded us all why we should be proud of the NHS.

[Nachum]

Quite openly says he is for a "redistribution of wealth"

For the video, scroll to the middle of the page.

OK children, can you say "share the wealth"?

[Nachum]

The list, ping

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

bfl

[SECURE AMERICA]

I was stationed at an Air Base in England for 3 years. The local citizens were desperate to get part time jobs at the base because it allowed them access to the Base Hospital.
The NHS sucked then and still sucks.

[RushIsMyTeddyBear]

I lived there for almost a decade. It DOES suck. Horrible.

[DrC]

Of course, now we know why this announcement was held until AFTER health reform had safely passed. Otherwise Berwick, who will oversee both the $500 billion in Medicare cuts and the expansion of Medicaid by 16 million people, would have been a lightning rod for criticism—an extra “oomph” on the side of opponents that could have been enough to scuttle the bill.

Even his champions concede “He will be the public face of healthcare reform in Medicare and Medicaid” http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/720497

CMS has not had a permanent director since October 2006. Medicare and Medicaid each have more “covered lives” than any single private health insurance plan. Can you imagine any private sector health plan going nearly 4 years without a permanent (as opposed to “acting”) CEO? Just one more reason government shouldn’t be in the health care business in the first place.

[Paine in the Neck]

OK children, can you say "share the wealth"?

they're not interested in 'share the wealth'; they want to seize the wealth.

[dalebert]

well i can hardly wait til he screws medicare up some more...

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Bump! [Added to Monster Ping. Link in profile.]

[schwingdoc]

So - politicians are inherently more accountable than a free market?
That "public campaigning" is soooo much more "harsh, and admittedly unfair [in the] daylight of the press, [and] public debate" than say a business or a company? public campaigning? harsh? that's our societal penultimate accountability?
Implying of course that politics in the end holds those in charge so much more accountable than does a manager of a company.
Implying too that an individual thus has soo much more accessability to a politician and their decisions than to a free market.
Really? Really?
What the hell guys.

"Making tough choices and planning supply" - oooh you mean death panels right mr. government a-hole?

Ignoring the other talking points that will undoubtably come from this video ie the "neccessity of redistribution"
I'll leave that talking point to joe the plummer - but the major implication I get from this speech is how much more accountable politicians are than a free market.

If that isnt the absolute most bass ackwards out of touch worthy of getting your head rammed into the arse of a elephant with colitis.
To hell with this administration.
When is it time? When is it time? I think this may be the most vomit worthy 2:16 I may have ever heard or seen.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Americans were slow to take on Obama-care because we were blessed with the best logistical minds on earth. It probably began during the Revolution. Benjamin Franklin had run a post office prior to the war, and then

was a logistical mastermind. We largely won the Revolution through logistics. Military thought at the time was that retreats are too dangerous. The resulting disorder would destroy the army. But through the brilliance of General Nathanael Greene, every time we lost a battle the British were caught flat-footed. He had a retreat pre-planned every time. His retreat across the Dan River actually led to a major strategic victory.

Our sense of logistics helped propel us into the Industrial Revoluion.

Sorry to digress, but Americans know full well the distribution problems that result from too much central planning. Even if it were well intended, it could never out-think a free market. Americans never would would have voted on this monster directly. Obama had to sidestep the public will.