Obama’s new Medicare Czar has made arrangements to keep himself off the very government health care program through which he plans to impose rationing on the rest of us. The folks at Pajamas Media were kind enough to run my column on Berwick’s hypocrisy:
Dr. Berwick has made sure that he and his wife will never be subjected to the tender mercies of Medicare, the health care program for seniors over which he now has control … he won’t have to worry about his wife suffering for lack of drugs deemed too pricey by some obscure comparative effectiveness calculation. You and I, on the other hand, won’t be so lucky …
This is why the recess appointment of our new CMS head matters—-a lot. This guy can mess your life up in ways only dreamed of by most of his accomplices inside the Beltway. To read the rest of the piece, go to PJM.
Comments 6
He got his long-term health benefits in 2003, David. As Matt said on the other post, he wouldn’t ask Berwick to forego his benefits from previous employment, and I’m sure neither would you. By your logic, no-one in government should legislate on anything they are not directly affected by. I’m sure Lyndon Johnson wasn’t going to transfer to Medicare when he signed the bill but thank goodness some Americans aren’t too selfish to consider the plight of others.
Posted 18 Jul 2010 at 4:58 pm ¶Marc, they shouldn’t mandate anything that they won’t sign up for. That includes LBJ and the other weasels. That also goes for bureaucrats and gop officeholders.
If it’s not good enough for everybody, don’t pass it.
BTW, nice elitist attitude you have there.
Posted 18 Jul 2010 at 7:22 pm ¶Mike:
Hang around here long enough and you’ll find that Marc is all elitist, all the time. (When he isn’t burying the comments in non sequiturs and ad hominem.)
Posted 18 Jul 2010 at 11:41 pm ¶“I will add, as a fifth circumstance in the situation of the House of Representatives, restraining them from oppressive measures, that they can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as on the great mass of the society. ” -Federalist #57
Posted 19 Jul 2010 at 8:01 am ¶Legislators (and by extension, regulators) and their families need to feel the teeth of the rules they seek to impose on others.
Trouble is, you’ve no argument. Next you’ll be saying that to pass a food stamps program you have to be eligible for stamps. Or for a drugs program for those with HIV/AIDS you have to be HIV positive. And of course Medicare is good enough for everyone - why even you tea party folk like it.
Posted 19 Jul 2010 at 8:14 am ¶Marc,
reductio ad absurdum
Seamus
Posted 19 Jul 2010 at 5:19 pm ¶Post a Comment