Sounds like a fun way to spend the summer, doesn’t it?
President Barack Obama spent the last year insisting he doesn’t want to turn the American health care system into a carbon copy of the government-run British system.
But Obama’s pick to run Medicaid and Medicare — Donald Berwick — is a pediatrician and Harvard University professor with a self-professed “love” of the British system.
Berwick has called Britain’s National Health Service “one of the greatest health care institutions in human history” and “a global treasure.” He once said it sets an “example” for the United States to follow. And his decadelong efforts to improve the NHS were so well-regarded that Queen Elizabeth granted him an honorary knighthood in 2005.
And given the way that the public hates Obamacare, this should be one heck of a confirmation hearing. not just because of Sir Donald’s history of wanting to explicitly use ‘health care reform’ as a tool for wealth redistribution, but because he’s so supportive of a British health care system that’s frankly awful. I look forward to that discussion. I look forward to putting Sir Donald under the glare of television cameras and inviting him to explain why he loves a system that is actively importing foreign doctors to cover a shortfall of general practitioners – something that we’re going to be facing ourselves, soon. I look forward to seeing Sir Donald explain why the NHS is bragging that they’ve reduced the waiting time for in-and-out hospital stays to a mere nine weeks. And I look forward to hearing Sir Donald wax lyrical on the virtues of the NHS’ redistributing wealth – not that this would include the NHS’ own head, who makes twice as much as the UK Prime Minister.
So yeah. Let’s go, Sir Donald.
Moe Lane
PS: You pay your taxes? – Sorry, but that’s a pro forma question that we’re asking all Democratic nominees these days. And you’d be amazed how often the answer is ‘No.’
Crossposted to Moe Lane.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Dan McLaughlin
Another tidbit from a failed National Healthcare system
izoneguy (Diary) Tuesday, June 1st at 10:12AM EST (link)Soaring costs force Canada to reassess health model
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100531/hl_nm/us_health_3
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
This insisting business; is this the same way Obama insisted he didn't want to run a car company?
RedBeard Tuesday, June 1st at 10:24AM EST (link)At least Obama is consistent in his inconsistent insistings.
Standard-bearer for grouchy curmudgeonry since, oh, 1975 or so.
When Obama says "it was the last thing I wanted to do"
bk (Diary) Tuesday, June 1st at 10:34AM EST (link)it means that he’s more than happy to do it as part of his government takeover of our lives.
They have a politically tin ear for healthcare
Kyle-MI (Diary) Tuesday, June 1st at 11:30AM EST (link)Rasmussen has support for repeal at 60% nation wide. A nominee like this can only push it higher if that is possible. It is as if the Obama administration wants to loose both houses of congress.
"I fell in love with the NHS," Berwick said
Locked and Loaded (Diary) Tuesday, June 1st at 11:36AM EST (link)in a 2008 speech of the system that he 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.
Let’s get the goofball to explain this, as well. Boy, the nuts sure do hang in clusters.
Congress should tell Berwick to go smoke this:
izoneguy (Diary) Friday, June 4th at 3:49PM EST (link)NHS ‘preparing to cut millions of operations’: Patients will lose out to ensure £20bn savings
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1283873/NHS-preparing-cut-millions-operations-Patients-lose-ensure-20bn-savings.html?ITO=1490#ixzz0puotkxUh
Berwick has called Britain’s National Health Service “one of the greatest health care institutions in human history” and “a global treasure.” He once said it sets an “example” for the United States to follow. And his decadelong efforts to improve the NHS were so well-regarded that Queen Elizabeth granted him an honorary knighthood in 2005.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.