With Congress officially on recess, President Obama will on Wednesday use his ability to make recess appointments to name one of his more controversial nominees: Donald Berwick, nominee to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
The April nomination of Berwick — president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement — was in trouble and might not have been able to meet Senate confirmation due to comments Berwick made in the past about rationing health care. Even if Berwick could have been confirmed by the Senate, Democrats have little appetite for another round of fighting about changes to the health care system, Democrats said.
In an interview last year with Biotechnology Healthcare, Berwick said society makes decisions about rationing all the time, and that the “decision is not whether or not we will ration care — the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open. And right now, we are doing it blindly.”
Said Berwick, “You can say, ‘Well, we shouldn’t even look.’ But that would be irrational. The social budget is limited — we have a limited resource pool.
Obama brings in rationing expert for new Health Care Plan. Everyone in the pool.
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