Gratzer critiques the ideas held by President Obama's new nominee to head Medicare, Dr. Donald Berwick. Berwick wishes to emulate the British "universal system", despite its serious flaws. Here's an excerpt:
Berwick has decades of experience in health policy and, on paper, would seem a perfect candidate for the job. But he has fallen into the trap of many intellectual elites, which we might call the Harvard Disease: assuming that a government committee can guide one-sixth of the national economy into efficiency.(Read the full text.)
In many ways, the Harvard professor represents all that is wrong with the Obama White House’s approach to health-care reform. As an unabashed admirer of Britain’s National Health Service, he sees only one solution: a 10-point plan, with more micromanagement by clever elites...
For more on Berwick's views, here's a chilling speech he gave in the UK two years ago praising their system as morally superior to the American system because it does a better job of "redistributing wealth":
The one thing I'll give him credit for -- he doesn't hide his socialist views under a facade of "moderation". At least Americans will have a clear idea of the ideology behind those who wish to assume control over our health care.
