President Barack Obama today circumvented the Senate confirmation process by granting a recess appointment to Dr. Donald Berwick to be director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency that runs Medicare and Medicaid.
Berwick, a professor at Harvard Medical School and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (a think tank), has expressed his disdain for free-market medicine and his âloveâ for Great Britainâs government-run health-care system, while advocating health-care rationing and using the health-care system to redistribute wealth.
Berwick is known for his staunch defense of Great Britainâs government-run National Health System (NHS)âwhich he has hailed as a model for the world-- and his penchant for comparing the U.S. health-care system unfavorably to the British system. Read more...