New York Times on Berwick Nomination
Robert Pear has an article this morning on the status of Don Berwick’s nomination to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The article notes that Berwick “has spoken of the need to ration health care and cap spending and has confessed to a love affair with the British health care system,” and suggests “that Dr. Berwick faces a long uphill struggle to win Senate confirmation.”
Notably, the Times article also refutes Administration suggestions that Republicans have somehow taken a few quotes out of context in characterizing his support for rationed health care: “In fact, many of the comments have been repeated, with slight variations, in Dr. Berwick’s articles and lectures over the years.” The article includes several of Dr. Berwick’s key positions on health care “reform,” including caps on overall health spending and consolidation of health care services in regional centers.
On a related note, the BBC reports this morning that the British National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence has recommended the abolition of all trans-fats from food in England. In his writings, Dr. Berwick has previously indicated his support of NICE, and particularly its system of health care rationing. Given this latest development, will a nominee who supports the NICE system of rationing “with our eyes open” now also follow NICE in proposing an American version of the “Food Police” to regulate the offerings of all restaurants and grocery stores?