Friday, May 14, 2010

John Kerry Defends Dr. Death Panel

To the surprise of no one, John Kerry is standing up to defend Dr. Donald Berwick, Obama's pick for Medicare czar.  At the end of a day when several Republicans took to the floor of the Senate to criticize Berwick, Kerry said (emphasis mine),

“We need better than phony assertions that he’d ever set up death panels in Medicare, or interfere in personal health care decisions made between patients and their doctors,’’ Kerry said. “Frankly, we need a more honest debate than we had over health reform itself, which didn’t serve anyone well. It’s time to permanently retire these ridiculous accusations from politics and thoughtfully consider our nominees so that first rate experts won’t shy away from public service.’’

 That doesn't exactly jive with what Berwick has said previously:

"The more I have studied it, the more I believe that less discretion for doctors would improve patient safety." He then looks down. "Doctors will hate me for saying that."

That sounds to me like he plan to set up a system that comes between doctors and patients.  A system that takes "discretion" from your doctor who knows you, knows your history, and place it in the hands of a bureaucratic system.

Not that anybody listens to John Kerry, anway.  Just sayin'.

2 comments:

david7134 said...

I hate to tell you this, but discretion is already eroding. Currently it is packaged as "quality measures". We are told simple things like making sure patients are taking aspirin or to stop smoking. But these are the tip of the iceburg and we have been assured that it will get worse. These all sound fine, except they are things that we do and any doctor that doesn't should be avoided. But that is the way things start, just a little at a time. One thing I can say is that since the government has entered we have more expensive medical care and the real quality has reduced.

Reaganite Independent said...

Good work my friend, & linked at RR today:

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2010/05/best-of-new-media-right.html

Have a great weekend-