“He has a history of support for government rationing of health care.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) delivered the following statement on the Senate floor regarding the nomination of Dr. Donald Berwick to be Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services:
“Now, it is interesting to me, Mr. President, that just this week, just this very week, the President has made his nomination for a new director of the portion of Health and Human Service Department that deals with Medicare and Medicaid.
“The President has been in office for 15 months. We have had a debate and discussion in this body for almost all of that time on health care. This body, the Democrats have voted to cut Medicare by $500 billion from our seniors, who desperately depend upon Medicare.
“Why is it that the President has waited 15 months to finally nominate someone to be the head of the part of government that oversees Medicare and Medicaid? The President has put 15 million to 16 million more people on Medicaid, has cut Medicare, has told us that we can trust him on this, but yet he would not put somebody up to go through the confirmation process to head Medicare and Medicaid. Why? Well, in my opinion, he didn’t want anybody to answer the questions because they’re tough questions.
“Why wouldn’t you nominate somebody for all of that time, leave the post open essentially and not have somebody to come to Congress and say, ‘what are the implications for the American people of — of dumping another 16 million people on to Medicaid, of cutting $500 billion from Medicare?’
“Well, because the person he put in has a long history of a love of rationing of care. It’s Dr. Donald Berwick. He has a history of support for government rationing of health care resources on the grounds of cost. Not on the grounds of quality, not on the grounds of survivability but on the grounds of cost. And he has said, as recently as last June, ‘the decision is not whether or not we will ration care.’ He said, ‘the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open.’ So here we are, the newly nominated person has basically said, ‘I’m going into this to ration care.’
“Now, he’s a big supporter of what they have going on in Britain right now. It’s — they — in Britain they call it NICE–stands for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Well, this is what Dr. Berwick has said about it. He said that ‘those organizations are functioning very well and are well respected by clinicians, and they are making their populations healthier and better off.’
“Well, let me tell you what a London doctor, a colon cancer specialist, had to say. This doctor said, ‘a lot of my colleagues also face pressure from managers not to tell patients about new drugs.’ Said, ‘there’s nothing in writing, but telling patients opens up a Pandora’s box for health services trying to contain costs.’
“He further went on, this now being again Dr. Berwick, saying NICE, this British group, ‘is extremely effective and conscientious, valuable, an important knowledge building system.’ What did the BBC, the British Broadcasting Group, say? They say that doctors are keeping cancer patients in the dark about expensive new drugs that could extend their lives. A quarter of the specialists, 1 out of 4 specialists polled by a journal on melanoma in the United Kingdom, said that they hid facts about treatments for bone marrow cancer that may be difficult to obtain from the National Health Service. Doctors said they did not want to distress, upset or confuse patients if drugs had not yet been approved by the National Health Service drug’s watchdog called ‘NICE.’
“So, you take a look at the British health care system. 18 weeks of a wait, which is the promise from the Prime Minister in the debate last week–18 weeks from when you’re diagnosed with cancer until you have your operation.
“That’s their aspirational goal. It makes you wonder what it is now. It has to be a lot longer than 18 weeks.
“So, Mr. President, I would tell you it’s no surprise that the latest polls that are out this morning, the Quinnipiac poll, a poll that was done just this past week, ‘do you support passage of the health care reform bill?’ Less than 4 in 10 Americans, only 39%, approve what this body crammed down the throats of the American people. Whereas over half of all Americans disapprove of what this administration, this President, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and this Congress has now forced upon the American people.”