Dr. Donald M. Berwick is hardly a household name. But in medical and public policy circles, he’s won deserved acclaim for his fair-minded work on reducing medical errors, for his advocacy on preventive health care and for his work in helping hospitals design programs that deliver measurably better care to patients at a lower cost. His resume is so sterling that President Barack Obama has nominated him to run Medicare and Medicaid. That’s energized Republican opposition to the president’s new health care law and the nominee. Such contrariness is a display of political partisanship at its worst.
Dr. Berwick, to be sure, is not free of controversy, but his nomination has won the support of those who know him and his work best. Both Republican and Democratic appointees who have run the Centers fro Medicare and Medicaid Services — the agency that Dr. Berwick hopes to lead — applaud his nomination. Hospital executives and other health care providers sing his praises.
Theodore E. Townsend, president of an Iowa hospital, is typical. “Dr. Berwick has inspired me and this community. He has used his charisma and leadership ability to improve the quality of care at hundreds and hundreds of hospitals. I can’t think of anyone else who has had that kind of impact.”
That ringing endorsement, seconded by many other administrators round the nation, holds little weight with those opposed to his nomination. Apparently, they’ll do almost anything to scuttle his nomination. They’ve seized on passages in his writings and speeches in which he’s praised Britain’s government-operated health care system. They argue that means he supports rationed health care and say that is especially dangerous to the elderly. None of that is true.
Dr. Berwick has said that there are positive aspects to the British system, but he’s been just as outspoken in his criticism of it. His opponents carefully avoid mentioning the latter. The charges of rationing — long a rallying cry of those opposed to Mr. Obama’s health care program — aren’t quite fair either.
U.S. health care, as objective observers have noted for years — already is rationed by insurance companies. The Republicans opposed to the nomination, however, carefully sidestep that point.
Bald-faced partisanship has no place in the confirmation process. The Medicare and Medicaid post has been vacant for more than three years. It’s high time to fill an office that has a vital role to play in the delivery of U.S. health care. Dr. Berwick should be judged on his merits. If they are sound — by most accounts they are — his nomination should move forward.