Obama's Problematic New Nominee for Top Medicare/Medicaid Post

American Thinker ^ | 11/26/2011 | M. Catharine Evans

[opentalk]

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) chief Donald Berwick will step down on December 2, three weeks before his recess appointment expires on December 31. Fortunately, Dr. Berwick left a voluminous paper trail, leaving little doubt about his affinity for socialized medicine. His controversial views on "redistributional" healthcare and rationing prompted 42 senators to vehemently oppose his nomination last spring.

Not wishing to have another fight on his hands, President Obama has nominated Berwick's second-in-command, Marilyn Tavenner, to head the agency. Tavenner will act as CMS director until her own confirmation hearings sometime next year.

As principal deputy administrator and chief operating officer of CMS since 2010, Tavenner has stayed under the radar. .. the former nurse graduated from a state school, worked her way up in the private sector, ended up as Governor Tim Kaine (D-VA)'s secretary of Health and Human Services for the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2006-2010.

Tavenner's quiet, bipartisan rise to the top makes her a strategically smart choice, but at a time when most Americans' tolerance for self-serving politicians has reached an all-time low, the Virginia native might not fare any better than Berwick.

Last March, Tavenner told the Nashville Health Care Council that if she were nominated to lead CMS, the agency would follow the five-year plan outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

... While she was Virginia's HHS secretary in 2009, Tavenner and the governor conspired to delete certain details from a report on two state children's hospitals which Kaine wanted to close.

... While Tavenner worked for HCA, the company was busily enhancing its profit margin by defrauding the Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE systems. In 2000, HCA paid fines of $840 million for improperly billing the government and in 2003 HCA had to fork over another $631 million.

[Vaquero]

everything zer0 does is problematic in one way or another.

he is out to destroy America any and every way he can.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks opentalk. Wow, the partisan media shill who wrote this tries to shift attention

Donald Berwick will step down... left a voluminous paper trail, leaving little doubt about his affinity for socialized medicine... "redistributional" healthcare and rationing... Berwick's second-in-command, Marilyn Tavenner... Last March, Tavenner told the Nashville Health Care Council that if she were nominated to lead CMS, the agency would follow the five-year plan outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. ... While she was Virginia's HHS secretary in 2009, Tavenner and the governor conspired to delete certain details from a report on two state children's hospitals which Kaine wanted to close. ... While Tavenner worked for HCA, the company was busily enhancing its profit margin by defrauding the Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE systems.