Posted on 04/13/2011 1:44:34 PM PDT by jazusamo
(CNSNews.com) – At a press conference on Tuesday to announce the allocation of $1 billion in federal funding to improve patient health in the nation’s hospitals, Donald Berwick, administrator for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), compared the new health care law, which requires more government control, to other products that have become better and cheaper over time in the marketplace, without more government control.
Berwick said health care is “just like any other important segment of our economy” and “doing it right” will cost less in the long run.
“Computers today do more than they ever have at far lower prices,” Berwick said. “The same is true for cars, and TVs and telephones – just about every other product or service that we really care about.
“And they didn’t get there by cutting or by rationing,” Berwick said. “They got there by improving the processes that make their products and services.”
However, automobiles, telephones, computers, and televisions are products that stemmed from and thrived in a relatively free marketplace, unlike Medicare and Medicaid, which are run by government, and unlike Obamacare, which represents more government intervention in the health care marketplace and mandates that people buy its product, i.e., health insurance.
Berwick joined Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and guest speakers and others who are supportive of President Barack Obama’s health care law, including the head of the AFL-CIO and the president of the American Medical Association.
In her remarks at the event, Sebelius said the “Partnership for Patients” initiative “will bring together hospitals, physicians, nurses, employers, unions, patient advocates, health plans, and others to improve the safety of health care in America.”
Sebelius said the goals are to “reduce preventable injuries” in hospitals by 40 percent by 2013, a reduction she said could save 60,000 lives. The initiative is also supposed to prevent hospital readmissions by 20 percent by 2013.
“That’s why we are announcing today that we will commit up to $1 billion in new funding from the Affordable Care Act towards our two initial goals,” Sebelius said. “In addition, we are providing hospitals and physicians with an unprecedented range of resources about what other health care providers are doing to improve patient safety.”
Berwick’s remarks on Tuesday are in contrast to controversial comments he has made over the years about the rationing health care services and his admiration for the single-payer, government-run health care system in Great Britain, as reported earlier by CNSNews.com.
“The decision is not whether or not we will ration care – the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open,” Berwick said in a June 2009 interview with Biotechnology Healthcare.
In a talk Berwick delivered in England in 2008 to mark the 60th anniversary of Great Britain’s National Health Service, the bureaucracy that runs that country’s health care system, Berwick told the British that he loved their system. “Cynics beware,” he said. “I am romantic about the National Health Service; I love it.”
He particularly drew attention to the British system for limiting the budget for and planning the supply of health care services through government planning.
“You cap your health care budget, and you make the political and economic choices you need to make to keep affordability within reach,” Berwick said. “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.”
In the June 26, 2008 issue of the British Journal of Medicine, Berwick published an article praising Britain’s government-run system and criticizing marketplace health care in the United States because it fuels competition that apparently produces an excess supply of health care.
In contrast to his current views on how competition improved and lowered the cost of computers, televisions, and telephones, Berwick wrote in 2008: “Please don’t put your faith in market forces,” he said (italics in original).
“It’s a popular idea: that Adam Smith’s invisible hand would do a better job of designing care than leaders with plans can. I find little evidence that market forces relying on consumers choosing among an array of products, with competitors fighting it out, leads to the healthcare system you want and need. In the US, competition is a major reason for our duplicative, supply driven, fragmented care system,” Berwick added.
At Tuesday’s event, Sebelius repeated her view that Berwick is “the right person at the right time” to run the nation’s largest medical entitlement program and the latest $1 billion program funded by Obamacare.
“As we move forward, we couldn’t have a better person guiding this effort than Dr. Don Berwick,” Sebelius said. “President Obama chose Don as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and I’ve gotta’ tell you, he is the right person at the right time to lead this critical initiative.”
President Barack Obama recess-appointed Berwick to head the CMS in July 2010 when Congress was in recess. That appointment will expire at the end of this year, 2011, unless the Senate votes to confirm Berwick. In late January, Obama renominated Berwick for Senate confirmation.
As CNSNews.com reported in March, 42 Senate Republicans wrote a letter to President Obama opposing Berwick at CMS because of his support for health care rationing and Britain’s single-payer, socialized health care system.
Coming soon. The Obama do it yourself home appendectomy kit. Complete with scalpel and a DVD.
The big problem is that you can churn out millions of identical cars or computers. The guys on the assembly line don’t have to know every aspect of the car, just how to do their job.
However, each patient has to be seen by a highly-educated doctor.
Does this idiot realize that health care is a SERVICE, which means you pay a human (or two or three or more) to do something every time you use it. A friggin’ iPod is something that you pay for once and use it until it breaks. Why do leftists believe in slavery and call it “fairness”?
I don’t think comparing health care to appliances that can be unplugged sounds too good.
>>> Health Care Should Cost Less Like Computers, Cars, TVs, Says Medicare Chief Berwick
It’s real esay, you know, Berwick.
Get Government’s paws out of health care. Just like Computers, Cars (well, not any more), TVs (hmmm, I’ll need to think about that, too).
The price for TVs (HD TVs) jumped, only after government intervened. You, sir, might want to think about that!
Last I saw, cars get more expensive every year. And there is a hell of a lot of control on the auto industry. Heck, the gubment owns one of the major players.
Computer manufacturers aren't often sued for millions of dollars.
People make market decisions that they don't need cutting edge computers but will accept last year's technology for a cheaper price.
People pay for their own computers. If someone else paid for it cost would be no object.
Yes, it should cost less. Shut down government health care, the insurance companies and all other subsidies.
Exactly, and this idiot calls himself a doctor.
There are a couple of misleading ideas floating around this article. First, computers cost less because of advances in technology. Second, cars DON’T cost less. It is instructive to note that the cars which our government wants us to buy, the green ones, cost a whale of a lot MORE.
Third, when they say they want health care to “cost less” they do not mean lower prices, they mean caps on expenses. This is two different animals.
When they insist on “capping costs” they are really insisting on capping the care that you are allowed to procure for yourself. Why should they be allowed to do this?
I will again assert that we, as conservatives, should not be against health care rationing. After all, we are used to rationing our health care every time we walk through Walgreens and make decisions about what over-the-counter remedies we really need. The issue is not about rationing. The issue is about WHO makes the decisions!
As they say, “Medicine is not an exact science”.
Computers, Cars, and TVs can be sold across state lines, and you aren’t required to purchase any of them.
Berwick should look at services like Lasik and elective plastic surgery where prices have either dropped or stayed in line with inflation over the years. As opposed to virtually every other health service, these items are purchased directly by consumers without the heavy hand of government, insurance companies, and employer insurance in between.
It is now over $100 a month. Know anyone who makes that?? I sure as hell don't...and they take it out of my meager SS besides. I've worked for 54 years. Something is not right.
Q: What lack of behavior in today's and 0bamaCare's healthcare delivery system makes healthcare so immune to the price reductions we see for most other services and products?
“...Why do leftists believe in slavery and call it “fairness”?”
It’s because Leftists, Liberals have a mental disorder that consists of WTF??? when it comes to economics.
They can’t find their disorder with both hands.
So, there you have it.
All we need is for Microsoft to come up with a software program to run a mechanical robot to perform your colonoscopy in 15 seconds and, if a tumor is found, to perform your partial colon resection in 15 minutes.
Yeah! We need Doctors from Red China.
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