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Berwick: Attacks on healthcare law 'beyond cruelty'
Republican attacks on the new healthcare law went "beyond cruelty," former Medicare Administrator Don Berwick said in his first public speech since leaving government.
Now that he's gone, Berwick had some harsh words for the political climate in Washington and the debate over healthcare. Without naming names, Berwick slammed the congressional Republicans who fought President Obama's healthcare reform effort and blocked Berwick's nomination to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Berwick spoke Wednesday at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, which he led before accepting Obama's nomination to head CMS. He said he had no regrets about his tenure but that "cynicism grips Washington," according to The Boston Globe's transcript of his remarks.
Berwick took aim at the rhetoric surrounding the healthcare law, including the notion of "death panels" popularized by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
"That is hogwash," Berwick said. "It is purveyed by cynics, it employs deception and it destroys hope. It is beyond cruelty to have subjected our elders, especially, to groundless fear in the pure service of political agendas."
"It boggles my mind that the same people who cry 'foul' about rationing an instant later argue to reduce health care benefits for the needy, to defund crucial programs of care and prevention, and to shift thousands of dollars of annual costs to people — elders, the poor, the disabled — who are least able to bear them," Berwick said, according to The Globe's transcript.
The debate over rationing played a major role in derailing Berwick's nomination to lead CMS. Senate Republicans highlighted comments and academic articles in which he had praised the British healthcare system and called it a possible "model" for other countries. Berwick received a recess appointment by Obama after it became clear that there were not enough votes in the Senate to confirm him.
