Posted on 05/28/2010 5:35:51 AM PDT by IbJensen
(CNSNews.com) - Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Wednesday that Dr. Donald Berwick, an advocate of health-care rationing nominated by President Barack Obama to run Medicare and Medicaid, is absolutely the right leader at this time to run the governments largest health-care entitlement programs.
Under the health-care reform law signed by President Obama in March, hundreds of billions of dollars will be cut from the Medicare program over the next decade. Berwick is nominated to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which oversees Medicare.
Berwick, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has repeatedly indicated his support for rationing and for the single-payer, government-run health care system of Great Britain. After President Obama signed a $787-billion stimulus law that created a Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research--perceived by critics to be a first step toward creating a federal rationing system for health care--Berwick defended the program and rationing health care.
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.
At a Wednesday press conference on Capitol Hill, CNSNews.com quoted this statement by Berwick to Sebelius and asked her whether she agreed with it. Sebelius responded by saying she believed Berwick is the right man for the job and is well-suited to help increase the quality of health care.
Im really pleased that the President nominated Dr. Donald Berwick, Sebelius said. Hes known nationally as an enormously competent physician and an enormously passionate health care provider and someone who, I think, is incredibly well suited to help increase the quality of health care delivered to the 40-plus million Americans who rely on Medicare services and also the 30-plus million on Medicaid services.
Hes written extensively, hes taught all over the country, and I think hes absolutely the right leader for this time.
Sebelius likened an insurance company not paying a benefit it has not contracted for to the government, in a government-run system, rationing care to citizens.
Theres no question, right now, health care is being decided by insurance companies, said Sebelius. Part of the Affordable Care Act is to make sure that the tools are back in the hands of health care providers and patients to make their own decisions and so I think his leadership at this time is going to be critical.
When pressed to answer the question of whether or not she agreed with Berwicks statement about health-care rationing, Sebelius indicated she already had.
I just gave you the answer, she said.
In a talk he delivered in England in 2008 to mark the 60th birthday of Great Britains National Health Service, the bureaucracy that runs that countrys single-payer 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 rationing health-care by using government planning to deliberately create an insufficient supply of it. 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.
I hope all the senior citizens who voted for Obama are experiencing true buyer’s remorse. No one in this administration has a CONSCIENCE!
Where is Dr. Kevorkian—now that his country needs his services so desperately?
I’d say we clearly need to seriously ration advocates of all sorts.
I am amazed at the level of denial people want to engage in when it comes the ability of the government to continue to fund the level of health care spending when we are running trillion dollar plus deficits and owe tens of trillions more.
The money does not exist
repeat
The money does not exist
Shame on everyone who believed that it would.
Whew! For a minute there I thought you’d mention Lee H. Oswald.
Justice was supposed to be BLIND,
but under Pres_ _ent Obama it is twisted (like his heart)
Like "Justice", Healthcare will now be Political 100%.
She's part of the politburo...they get special treatment.
Those seniors are the generation that ObamaBots see as a barrier to their agenda. Ever see comments made about them in regards to the Gay agenda? The comments include some absolutely anticipating the demise of the Greatest Generation. Why do you think Obama makes it a part of his endless campaign to ignore them.
‘How old is Sebelius?......’
My thought too. Also wonder if her parents are alive. How will she feel if her parents are refused treatment??
But, like Mrs. Clinton who says ‘the rich’ should pay more taxes.....I’m sure Ms.Sebelius...and Mrs. Clinton..feel these ‘rules’ don’t apply to them or their loved ones.
Good cartoon.
Ms. Sebelius is today’s STUCK ON STUPID award winner.
Rationing of Medicare......the fast track to estate tax collection.
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