Saturday, May 15, 2010


Redistributing Health?
The administration's nominee to run Medicare and Medicaid is a fan of Britain's National Health Service and rationing services. He believes in less discretion for your doctor, more power for your government.

'The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open" is what Dr. Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, said in an interview published in Biotechnology Healthcare in June 2009....

...In the 2009 interview, Berwick opined: "We can make a sensible social decision and say, 'Well, at this point, to have access to a particular additional benefit (new drug or medical intervention) is so expensive that our taxpayers have better use for those funds." Sounds like denial of care to us....

...Concern about health care should focus on quality and not cost. There are ways to reduce costs such as malpractice reform and buying insurance across state lines. Establishing a government-run monopoly is not one of them. Who should get what care and why are decisions rightfully left between doctor and patient. But in a 2004 interview in the Boston Globe, Berwick said, "The more I have studied it, the more I believe that less discretion for doctors would improve patient safety."...