Obama's Medicare Czar: It's Worse than You Thought

(Thanks Michelle Malkin for the link! )

(See also:  Dr. Death Panel Gets a Recess Appointment)

Here is Obama's pick for Medicare czar, Dr. Donald Berwick, explaining how the ideal medical system should act.  He is speaking to a British audience in 2008 about how wonderful their national health care system is.  He applauds them for choosing their system over a "simpler, less ambitious, less troubled plan than the NHS; you could have had the American plan.  You could have been spending 17% of your GDP to make health care unaffordable as a human right instead of spending 9% and guaranteeing it as a human right."

Yes, Berwick loves the NHS.  In fact, he criticizes "the darkness of private enterprise instead of accepting that a politically accountable system must act in the harsh and admittedly sometimes very unfair daylight of the press, public debate and political campaigning."

Berwick says you should use "your tax base to provide a single route of finance" instead of a "monstrous insurance industry of claims and rules and paper pushing."

He says the NHS recognizes that "sick people tend to be poorer and that poor people tend to be sicker."

And the kicker:

Berwick says that "any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate.  Excellent health care is by definition redistributional."

Hear it for yourself:



The buzz is building against this guy.

Red State had a detailed article about him yesterday.

Here are my earlier posts on Berwick here and here and here.

American Spectator also has some informative posts on Berwick by Robert Goldberg and Philip Klein. 

Mark Levin is all over this guy and I'm sure Glenn Beck must be too, although I don't watch him.

Naturally The New York Times does not report any of his controversial opinions; in fact, they conclude:

Dr. Berwick could help shield the White House from Republican charges that Mr. Obama’s policies would lead to the rationing of care or even a government takeover.

Their piece on his selection is here.

Berwick must be confirmed by the Senate.  Start making your phone calls now!