Dr. Donald Berwick, the Harvard professor who liberal reporters love to call a "patient care specialist" despite the fact that he hasn't seen a patient in years, isn't the most alarming of Barack Obama's nominations to high federal positions.But he's not too far from it.
Indeed, the fellow who will now run two of the nation's largest budgets (Medicare and Medicaid) is a huge fan of government-dictated health care. And he's downright scary when it comes to ignoring the inevitable malfeasance, ineptitude and care rationing such systems produce.
For instance, two years ago Berwick blathered over Britain's socialized medicine, "I am romantic about the National Health Service. I love it.’’ And he believes it is...gulp...“an example for the whole world, an example . . . that the United States needs now.’’
Jeff Jacoby aptly described the frightening features of where Berwick's socialistic schemes will take us in this column:
But if Berwick’s credentials cannot be doubted, neither can his ideological commitment to centralized state power over health care, or his disdain for the ability of markets and competition to improve the quality and lower the cost of medical services.
He has publicly saluted Britain’s socialized National Health Service for rejecting the “immoral’’ American system and “the darkness of private enterprise.’’ He declares that “the Holy Grail of universal coverage’’ cannot be achieved with consumer-centered health care, but only through “collective action overriding some individual self-interest.’’
And he embraces government health care rationing. “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care,’’ he said in a 2009 interview, “the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.’’ This is a view Berwick has held for a long time; more than 10 years ago he wrote that “limited resources require decisions about who will have access to care and the extent of their coverage.’’ Accordingly, he praises the NHS for “making tough choices’’ about the care it administers — unlike the American system, in which the supply of medical care is not artificially restricted. “Here, you choose a harder path,’’ he said in Britain two years ago. “You plan the supply; you aim a bit low; you prefer slightly too little of a technology or a service to too much; then you search for care bottlenecks and try to relieve them.’’
And now, thanks to Barack Obama's recess appointment, Berwick is in place to help enact these alarming advances. And without ever having to answer for his kooky beliefs to Congress or the American people.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell accused Obama of trying to "arrogantly circumvent the American people" with Congress out of town for its annual July Fourth break. Berwick could serve through next year without Senate confirmation.
"Democrats haven't scheduled so much as a committee hearing for Donald Berwick but the mere possibility of allowing the American people the opportunity to hear what he intends to do with their health care is evidently reason enough for this administration to sneak him through without public scrutiny," said McConnell, R-Ky.
Once again, President Obama has revealed not only how dedicated he is to a radical leftist agenda on health care but how hypocritical are his promises of transparency, dialogue, public involvement and post-partisanship.
Dr. Berwick is a disastrous choice.
But he is just the latest in a series of nincompoops that Barack Obama has foisted onto the American people.
November can't come quickly enough.
