Posted on 09/14/2010 4:25:19 PM PDT by wagglebee
It is very clear that the Obama Administration knows its approach to health care is unpopular. Thus, the short term Medicare head, Donald Berwickwho Obama gave a recess appointment to so he wouldnt have to testify in a Senate Committee about his rationing viewspretended that we can expand coverage, while not raising prices and not cutting care in a speech yesterday. What a joke. From the Associated Press story:
The nations health system cant be transformed by rationing medical care, President Barack Obamas new Medicare chief said Monday in his first major speech. Dr. Donald Berwicks appointment earlier this summer without Senate confirmation was contentious because some Republicans accused him of being willing to deny care to save on costs. Since then, the administration has kept Berwick out of the limelight, turning the otherwise well-known medical innovation guru into something of a mystery man in Washington.
Berwick broke his silence Monday, telling an audience of health insurance industry representatives that pushing back against unsustainable costs cannot and should not involve withholding from us, or our neighbors, any care that helps or harming a hair on any patients head. Berwick also said he doesnt think federal bureaucrats have all the answers when it comes to remaking the system. A massive, topdown, national project is not the way to do this, he told a conference hosted by Americas Health Insurance Plans, the industry lobbying group.
Some Republicans accused. No, he said it himself. As the story points out:
Republicans have seized on previous comments from Berwick, such as this one from an interview last year: The decision is not whether or not we will ration care the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly. They say that raises questions about what Berwick really thinks of rationing. Berwicks supporters counter that rationing already takes place, through actions of insurance companies, and all he wants is to bring the medical decision-making process into the open.
Thats not the same thing at all as not harming any hair on a patients head, and in fact, endorses explicit rationing. Besides, Berwick is also on record as applauding NICE and the NHSs top-down, rationed care approach, as I pointed out at this SHS post, in which he extolled the NHS for planning supply, (e.g. rationing) and redistributing wealth, and also stated:
I am a romantic about the NHS; I love it, and the NHS is not just a national treasure, it is a global treasure.
Its melting down! People are denied important medical services. Hospitals are filthy. People are left waiting in ambulances before going into the ER. Cancer patients and others are denied efficacious treatment based on QALY quality of life bean counter analyses. (Just do a search on this site under SHS Meltdown to see scores of stories I have carried here.)
Berwick can pretend to change his spots. But we know what he really believes. And next year, when his temporary appointment ends, he will most likely be out of a job.
Berwick can't wait to start appointing death panels.
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Death Eaters. They want to kill you just because it makes them feel superior, not for any practical purpose.
Let me get this straight. We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke;
What the hell could possibly go wrong?
You omitted the part about it being administrated by people who want to emulate the worst aspects of socialized medicine programs in other countries (e.g. rationing and death panels), but aside from that you summed it up perfectly.
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Well that can be changed by swiping what you wrote and adding it to the posting in the future.
Could you add something about the rationing, and being denied the care we’re forced to pay for?
Let me get this straight. We're going to be "gifted" with a health care plan we are forced to purchase and fined if we don't, written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it but exempts themselves from it, to be signed by a president who smokes, with funding administered by a treasury chief who didn't pay his taxes, to be overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that's broke; administrated by people who want to emulate the worst aspects of socialized medicine programs in other countries (e.g. rationing and death panels)
What the hell could possibly go wrong?
That is so “Maxine.” I love it!
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