Last night, President Obama announced his fifteenth recess appointment: Dr. Donald Berwick, who will serve as Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Berwick is a pediatrician, Harvard professor and head of the non-profit Institute for Healthcare Improvement by day and, if the Republican reaction is any guide, the man who will institute health care rationing and kill the elderly at night.
Not sure why it’s such a big deal that the President finally put someone, or even Berwick, in charge of administering Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program after four years of our government tolerating a rudderless agency? The Republicans have answers for you.
Mitch McConnell’s spokesman, when asked by TPMDC for a reaction, called Berwick “one of the most prominent advocates of rationed health care to implement their national plan.” In a press release entitled “Hail Brittania,” the GOP attempts to make hay out of a cut-up Berwick quote in which he expresses admiration for the British health care system. The full quote, from Politico, is:
“I fell in love with the NHS,” Berwick said in a 2008 speech of the system that he had worked on since the 1990s. “To an American observer, the NHS is such a seductress. … Like any lover, it took me a while to see the blemishes of my beloved, though I soon had help from people quite willing to point out the warts.”
What does Berwick reportedly like about the NHS? According to the same article “elements that the American system lacks: universal coverage, ‘centralized stewardship’ and guaranteed care regardless of income.” How evil.
Berwick, who will be in charge of implementing the new health care law (which expands Medicaid eligibility by 16 million people and is supposed to realize some cost savings), has a theory that he’s been promoting as part of his non-profit work: “doctors and hospitals can boost care and reduce medical errors while saving money.” In other words, rather than rationing health care, he wants to make it smarter and more effective.
For that, he has been lambasted by Republicans, who want to portray him as the foremost advocate of rationing care for seniors and socialized medicine. Rep. Todd Tiahrt said as much this morning, according to CBS News’ Mark Knoller, calling Berwick “a dangerous man.”
Republicans, furious over the nomination, have universally condemned Obama for “sneaking” Berwick into office, where he’ll be able to serve through the end of 2011. However, Knoller noted that George W. Bush made 139 recess appointments (in part because Senate Democrats began blocking such appointments in 2007 by refusing to end Senate sessions); Clinton made 140; George Bush made 77; and Ronald Reagan made a startling 243.
Republicans were joined in their concern about the recess appointment by Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), who said it a statement:
I’m troubled that, rather than going through the standard nomination process, Dr. Berwick was recess appointed. Senate confirmation of presidential appointees is an essential process prescribed by the Constitution that serves as a check on executive power and protects Montanans and all Americans by ensuring that crucial questions are asked of the nominee - and answered.
Democrats in the Senate had not yet even scheduled a hearing on Berwick’s appointment, reportedly over concerns that it would re-open the brutal health care debate, and there are reports that the Democrats were awaiting additional documentation on the nomination.
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