Former New York governor George Pataki has sent a letter to U.S. Senators warning that Donald Berwick would be dangerous as the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:
Dr. Berwick’s long record of embracing and promoting socialist-style, government-run health care represents a clear and present danger to every patient and every physician across the country.
Pataki’s warning is not hyperbole. As I recently pointed out in the American Spectator, CMS is a powerful agency with a huge budget. An ideologue like Berwick at its helm can do serious damage. As Pataki puts it:
The Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has responsibility for Medicare and Medicaid program policies that directly or indirectly affect our entire health care system and account for $800 billion a year.
Moreover, the amount of money and power controlled by the CMS administrator will increase dramatically as Obamacare kicks in. And Congress will have trouble contolling him, even if the GOP wins big in November:
Notwithstanding Congressional efforts to repeal and replace ObamaCare, the CMS Administrator will play a significant role in shaping policies as elements of this law move toward implementation.
Pataki is absolutely right that Berwick’s confirmation would “expedite the complete government take-over” of U.S. health care. I wish I could believe that the Senate was run by people with enough sense to send him packing.
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