Posted on 02/18/2011 9:23:56 AM PST by Nachum
In Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novella about the duality of human nature, a minor character describes Mr. Hyde thus: "There is something wrong with his appearance; something displeasing, something down-right detestable. I never saw a man I so disliked." It is difficult to avoid similar feelings of revulsion watching the C-SPAN video of Dr. Donald Berwick's alter ego testifying at the February 10 hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee. His disingenuous opening remarks, evasive answers, and transparent contempt for congressional oversight revealed Obama's recess-appointed administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) as a grotesque changeling. Gone were the bold statements about rationing, Britain's socialized medical system, and the perils of the market. The celebrated visionary, Dr. Donald Berwick, has been completely subsumed in the sly apparatchik, Mr. Hide.
The Dr. Berwick with whom we have become all too familiar was a vocal advocate of health care rationing. In a 2009 interview for Biotechnology Healthcare, he gushed with enthusiasm for the heavy-handed rationing regime of Great Britain's National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) and advised his interlocutor that "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care; the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." When the good doctor's alter ego appeared before the Ways and Means Committee, however, he told a different story. Mr. Hide, it seems, has always been a vehement opponent of rationing. When asked by Tom Price, M.D. (R-GA) about the above-quoted remark and a variety of similar public statements, he stunned the committee with the following answer: "I abhor rationing…. My entire life has been spent fighting rationing."
Had this astonishing assertion been made anywhere but inside the Beltway, it would have immediately elicited the following outraged query: "What have you done with Dr. Berwick?!"
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
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Are there available untapped resources in capitalist America today to provide every single American with all the health care services that he or she desires to consume?
If "yes" then there must be a straightforward way to distribute those services to the consumer... conservatives and liberals are warring needlessly.
If "no" then somehow there must be a way to determine who will get fewer services than they desire. The market can do it in the case of private enrollees, the government must do it in the case of its enrollees. When Berwick says, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care; the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." he is speaking an obvious truth.
Ah, but when you listen to his statement in context of his obvious disdain for the free market, and love for the NHS of Britain- all recorded on video- for all to see, then the truth that is obvious something quite different.
The RINOS don’t have the balls to challenge him.
Then why are my physical therapy sessions RATIONED by Medicare? I am allowed so many per year. Why does Medicare pay for certain treatments of Peripheral Neuropathy IF you have diabetes but DOES NOT if it is caused by another disease? Not only is it healthcare rationing it is discriminatory.
You have that right. And we are on both Medicare and Tricare for Life as hubby is a Senior Chief (ret.), both are admined out of the same agency.
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