Berwick Ducks and Weaves Before Congress
by Capitol ConfidentialWith little fanfare, Rationer-in-Chief Donald Berwick, President Obama’s choice to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, appeared before the House Ways and Means Committee and did his best impression of Gumby – twisting and turning his support for rationing health care.
Berwick has championed the British health care system for years proclaiming his outright support of rationing. In 2009, Berwick said, “The decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.” In a 2008 speech, Berwick proclaimed, “I am romantic about the NHS; I love it. All I need to do to rediscover the romance is to look at health care in my own country.” Of course, the British system openly rations care for the sick and the elderly.
But Berwick ran from those statements like a scalded dog before House members who asked pointed questions about his support for rationing care. When Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) asked him whether he supports healthcare rationing, Berwick said, “I abhor rationing.” At another point he said that he spent his whole life fighting rationing, The Hill reports.
Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) asked him whether he was still “in love” with the British healthcare system, Berwick’s response: “There are strengths and weaknesses in every healthcare system in the world. The American healthcare system needs an American solution.”
For fear of stating the obvious, it is clear Berwick was not honest in his testimony.
He cut; ran; ducked; weaved; and twisted his long history of support for a government-run health care system. Worse yet, while the Administration may deny support for rationing, their policies are opening the door to it. Just ask late stage breast cancer patients who have been threatened with the termination of insurance coverage of life-extending drug called Avastin because of cost considerations.
The Food and Drug Administration has proposed to “de-label” the drug, a move that would remove insurance and Medicare coverage for patients. The wealthy would still have access to the drug but everyone else would be forced to mortgage their house to be able to continue to use the drug to save their lives. During consideration of the action, a FDA appointee mentioned the cost of the drug basis for their decision.
Even Berwick’s own department is apparently getting into the act. The office has declared a review of the colon drug Provenge because of its cost.
Republicans should not be buying the snake oil Berwick is selling. The Senate Finance Committee should reject his nomination and should begin to end the initial efforts by our government to ration care for the sick and the elderly.
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48 Comments
I only hope that this guy suffers the same fate that Obama impels all of us to suffer.
This guy's oxygen needs to be "rationed."
Americans are not fooled by Dr. Berwick. He's a confirmed Socialist who want to ram ObamaCare through. Problem for Berwick and Obama is….America rejects it, . and we're not exactly a wishy washy group. We fight !
Donald Berwick is a lying evil progressive SOB that can go to HELL.
I wish he suffers the health care he wants us to have.
Surely there are some experimental labs in need of a rat? He's a fine specimen.
a lib lies….. shocker!!!
He is no better than Stalin, Che, Chavez or Hitler. What he wants is plain and simply Genocide. May you rot in heII you son of a bItch.
Well, that's great. We now have him in the congressional records lying his ass off.
And? So what are we going to do with that? Is there any penalty we can impose on him? Or does he just get to walk away from his testimony laughing at what he's gotten away with?
In a perfect world, there'd be a death panel just for him…..
Me, myself, and I……
The only credentials you need to be on Obama's team is be able to lie as every time you open your mouth.
did you mean Che Guevara or Che Guabama? pleeez, I despise the a'hole too.
Yes – he gets to walk away without consequences – like so mny other peple we've seen in Washington. And, anyone who points out his hypocrisy (by proving it with his own statements) will be branded by the left as intolerant. Shoot the messenger, can't argue the facts, it will probably go away soon anyhow.
he had to lie or he would not be confirmed…
EVERYONE in the room knows this. Berwick is not exactly an unknown quantity. He was a recess appointment for a reason- because of his humanistic agenda and love of eugenics.
ALL of Obama's people like eugenics.
If this guy told the truth he would not only NOT be confirmed but run out of town tarred, feathered and on a rail.
Now the question is does the Congress give Obama his guy or just keep rejecting Berwick clones.
That's all you're going to see…
Dog and pony show…
If he lied to Congress under oath, then time to prosecute for perjury.
Scooter Libby demands it!
You'd have a lot of support for your death panel for Berwick Deus!
I agree. Berwick is the worst.
Will anything come of these hearings? We're waiting……………….
Lying. It's this administration's native language. Even Michelle promotes it in her new PSA to get kids moving. It's appalling how natural it comes to them.
Berwick is one scary dude… I wonder how he would feel if we were in charge of rationing his care?
At what point is someone, anyone in government going to stand upt to people like this and call them a liar to their face! They have supporting documentation of what this idiot has stated in the past so why not confront him on it while he's in the hotseat?
These freakin' Malthusians need a dose of their own medicine…..
The only response to these people should be "you first"……
If he likes the British health care system so much, deport him to London…………….preferably the east end, where he can assimilate with the other newly arrived immigrants.
And again Tom Price of GA ask the tough questions. We need to get to know this man.
oCare and now the UNIONS he's willing to tackle?
He is sounding like a patriot to me…
.
No, he made sure he and his family would be exmpt from the decisions he would be making for the rest of us.
What ives him the right to control me? That's right, nothing does. These people pizz me off so bad. I like to turn the abortion argument on them by saying that I have a right to do what I want with my body. It's what they say when they defend abortion isn't it?
One thing bonds all 0bama appointees. Pathological lying.
Every appointee in the 0bama cabal has one thing in common. Pathological lying.
Dr. Berwick deserved being dropped off in Cairo, and see how much rationing the Egyptian mobs would have given his miserable, socialistic butt!!!!
Duck and hide!
Oh, we're used to it by now. Well, at least those of us that are inquisitive anyways.
This entire administration has to lie about who they are and what they believe. It's what they do that is worth investigating.
Thank you, Petro, for stating exactly what I was thinking when I read the post. I hope that, many centuries from now, archeologists carefully brushing and chipping their way thru the mummified remains of a gigantic mass grave located in Washington D.C. and the former USA, find Berwicks rat skull in a clay pot and a clay tablet with the following message on it:
Here lies the skull of a key player in a vast cabal of treasonous bastards who destroyed a republic and like dominos, the rest of the world with a simple-minded idea to transform mankind into something other than what freedom loving people wanted. In the end, he and the rest of the horrible lot were finally destroyed by the few surviving peasants and dumped here to rot away.
I hope he suffers worse than the peasantry will.
Hell won't have him as he wants to ration fire and brimstone.
No he won't…. he's part of the elite protected class. Even highly respected heart surgeons who are too busy with saving people's lives to keep up with current events are aware of how threatening this man is!
Don't forget, this dipstick has lifetime healthcare and pension benefits from his private sector employer, which he just happened to create and run. He don't need no stinkin Obamacare!!! Pity the fools.
Ha, ha, ha! My thoughts exactly! Well put!
And, be willing to sell your soul to the devil for a cheap price!
What Scooter Libby may or may not have done is SOOOO insignificant compared with what has become every day actions by Obama and his minions that mentioning Scooter is ridiculous.
D:
Keep in mind Obama gave him a recess appointment in part so he wouldn't have to get in front of a committee and lie. Right Obama has 51 senators willing to walk the walk. Too bad we couldn't win a couple of more senate seats in 2010 and life would be real hell for the entire Obama adminstration.
Walter Hanson
Minneapols, MN
Not to mention Martha Stewart and Gov Rob what his name are demanding it also.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
By any chance did anybody ask what was his favorite feature of the British health care system. Was it people in ambluances for hours, waiting times of six months or more for operations.
Walter Hanson
Minneapolis, MN
The Repubs on the committee should throw that in his face. Effin hypocrite.
Government involvement in healthcare is already massive (our government spends more per capita than socialist states like Canada and England) so while I'm no fan of Obamacare, anyone that tells themselves the old system was free market is fooling themselves.
What we really need to do is get costs under control, and that is going to involve saying 'no' (aka rationing) as well as pushing back the retirement age. Sadly, I see no appetite for cost control on either side.
Instead recent presidents have expanded both the benefits (Bush) and who gets them (Obama). Now conservative politicians, the people who ought to be calling for fiscal responsibilly, are playing populist by positioning themselves as the defenders of an unsustainable system (the system even before Obama messed with it).
I wonder if Berwick will issue a regulation to require that all person's voter registration / party affiliation be included in their medical charts?
Berman is a closet Muslim practicing "Takiyya".
Berwick might have been twisting and turning before the committee, but at least he was in one place. When some probing media questions were thrown at him earlier, he ran away.
"The U.S. health care system is possibly the most inefficient in the world: We spend twice as much per person on health care as other advanced countries, but we have worse health outcomes, including a lower life expectancy. The government, through programs like Medicare and Medicaid, pays for approximately half of the country's health care, almost all of which is actually provided by the private sector. Thus, the bulk of our projected rising budget deficits are due to skyrocketing health care costs."
At this site you can compare the effect on the deficit if you had the health care costs of other countries (including the UK).
http://www.cepr.net/calculators/hc/hc-calculator….
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