The American Spectator : Bowdlerizing Berwick

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Bowdlerizing Berwick

By David Catron on 7.12.10 @ 6:09AM

The media campaign to sanitize Donald Berwick's record.

Thomas Bowdler was an English physician whose desire to publish an edition of Shakespeare amenable to 19th-century sensibilities led him to sanitize many of the Bard's juiciest passages. The result was predictably risible. One of his most hilarious revisions was to change Lady Macbeth's cri de coeur, "Out, damned spot," to "Out, crimson spot!" As absurd as it was, this project did preserve the good doctor's name for posterity in the verb "bowdlerize." And it would be difficult to come up with a better term to describe what the establishment media have attempted to do with the record of Donald Berwick, the Harvard pediatrician whom our President just appointed Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Although most Americans had probably never heard of Berwick before last Wednesday's recess appointment, he is well-known in the health care industry. And there, as the Swan of Avon would put it, is the rub. He has written and spoken extensively, and his views concerning wealth redistribution, rationing, and the free market are very much at odds with those of mainstream health policy experts as well as the electorate. Moreover, he has not been reticent about revealing his positions in writing and public statements. This is one of the reasons Obama chose to bypass the Senate confirmation process and it is why Democrat-friendly journalists and bloggers have worked diligently, since his nomination last April, to bowdlerize Berwick's record.

One of the most disingenuous attempts to sanitize Berwick's radical views was produced by the New Republic's Jonathan Cohn: "He'll redistribute wealth… That's what Republicans said about President Barack Obama… Now they're saying it about Donald Berwick." In other words, the GOP has fired up its mythical "noise machine." A quick perusal of Berwick's positions, however, makes it obvious that the Republicans haven't distorted his record at all. Here's one of his most widely publicized assertions on health reform: "Any healthcare funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane, must redistribute wealth…" Such statements make it difficult to honestly argue that Berwick is not for redistribution.

Faced with this inconvenience, some of Berwick's bowdlerizers have shrunk from Cohn's brand of brazen dishonesty. They have instead argued that Berwick's comments are unremarkable. At Media Matters, for example, Matthew Gertz writes that all government health care programs are redistributive: "Medicare and Medicaid redistribute wealth from those who can afford private insurance to those who cannot." This argument is not merely inaccurate -- millions of middle-class and wealthy seniors are on Medicare -- it is logically incoherent. Dr. Berwick's fondness for spreading the wealth around is not rendered reasonable by the regrettable fact that Washington bureaucrats already rob Peter to pay for Paul's health care.

Another member of the "What's all the fuss about?" school is Washington Post blogger Ezra Klein, who attempts to decontaminate Berwick's toxic assertion that "the decision is not whether or not we will ration care; the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open." Claiming that Republican Paul Ryan told him much the same thing in an interview, Klein insinuates that even conservatives accept the need for state-imposed rationing. But Klein is being less than candid about the congressman's words. In reality, Ryan repudiated Berwick's statist philosophy: "[R]ather than having government ration care to manage decline, let's take those market signals that work in every sector of the economy to reduce cost and improve competition."

Berwick's view of rationing is, in fact, the opposite of Ryan's. The latter believes it should be driven by the informed decisions of consumers in a free market, while our new CMS head has summed up his contempt for the intelligence of patients as follows: "I cannot believe that the individual health care consumer can enforce through choice the proper configurations of a system as massive and complex as health care. That is for leaders to do." And yet the media consistently portray Berwick as an advocate of patient-centered care. The New York Times ran a piece last month titled "Letting the Patient Call the Shots," which credits Berwick with advocating a health system that would "transfer control from doctors to the patients themselves."

Ironically, the deceptive journalism of Cohn, Klein, et al. is largely gratuitous. There are more subtle ways to bowdlerize Berwick's record. One method Bowdler himself used to sanitize Shakespeare was to simply eliminate all references to certain "offensive" characters. And, in fact, some media outlets have followed his example by editing Berwick out of the news. Geoffrey Dickens reports, "[T]here was no mention of the President's decision to make the recess appointment on Tuesday night's NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News or ABC's World News. In fact the embargo on the information continued through Wednesday morning as there were zero mentions on ABC's Good Morning America and CBS's The Early Show."

Donald Berwick's views on wealth redistribution, rationing. and the free market are far to the left of mainstream public opinion, and a wide variety of conservative and libertarian health care experts have correctly identified him as a clear and present danger to our medical delivery system. Thus, having abetted the Democrat health care agenda by deliberately hiding the ugliest features of Obamacare, the establishment "news" media are now attempting to sanitize the record of Obama's radical new CMS administrator. This incredibly dishonest campaign provides yet more evidence that the Fourth Estate itself is a clear and present danger -- to the republic.

About the Author

David Catron is a health care revenue cycle expert who has spent more than twenty years working for and consulting with hospitals and medical practices. He has an MBA from the University of Georgia and blogs at Health Care BS.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (41) | Leave a comment

Robbins Mitchell| 7.12.10 @ 6:56AM

Well,even Barokeydoke knows what a PR disaster this guy is....hence,the announcement of his recess appointment because it is supposedly "too important for a hearing" before the Senate.....Berwick is a refugee from Karl Marx's toilet and smells it every bit....I can see now I'm going to have to take a strap to his ass.

matt Laine| 7.12.10 @ 9:21AM

Bravo Robbins Mitchell

Chairman Nobomba| 7.12.10 @ 7:58PM

There is no way to hide a smelly communist. Sooner or later the stench will leach out.

Ret. Marine| 7.12.10 @ 7:14AM

While they cry foul, it is their foul approach to this issue that should have taken center stage. This pretender-n-theif, otherwise known as the "won", or if you prefere, the prezidiot is a true coward in every sense of this matter, he first has to lie, lie and lie some more of this giant healthscare he calls his own, then he and his minions have to lie, lie and lie some more in order to get their storm troopers on their side and now, without even an appointmnt on the dock of public approval, he now has to lie about the agenda he lies about in order to slip his fav fraud upon the healthscare system and the reason for the deception, as usual, we are too stoooooopid to knowe whats best for us, our Nation or our future.
If I were a person with hope in mind and change in the air I breath, I could almost, almost go along with the part of them knowing what's best for me but, I am not and I don't believe a word coming henceforth from his forked tongue. Like I said, he a COWARD but, the good news is, wait for it, he will no longer be in this position come the end of this 111th Congress. Yet another reason to drag a fellow Patriot kicking and screaming about the lessor of the evils we call our choice at the ballot box. Keep the powder dry folks, this coming spring will be the determining time for the next battle for our beloved Republic. If we lose, they lose.

bluecollarbytes| 7.12.10 @ 7:25AM

The "proper configurations of a (health care) system" translation- the politicizing of the health care industry, setting us up yet again, one against the other.

Stephanie| 7.12.10 @ 7:47AM

Obama the uniter. Uhh huh.

Anyone see Axelrod on Chris Wallace yesterday?
I think he said the Repubs are taking the British Health Care System lover "out of context".
Ret.Marine, I guess you're correct. We are too stoooooopid to get it.

Anthony| 7.12.10 @ 10:40AM

Not to worry Steph, we're in good company, Chris Wallace is also too stupid to get it. I am really getting sick of Wallace's faux attempt of "fair and balanced".
This idiot goes out of his way not to get it. When he asked John Kyle how we were going to pay for tax cuts, it was just too much.
How many times does Wallace need to hear the truth about tax cuts and their affect on the economy before it sinks into his dyed head?

Grzmlyk| 7.12.10 @ 1:09PM

Agreed.

Wallace never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity to hold libs' feet to the fire. There were many opportunities yesterday for him to nail Axelrod, but of course that wouldn't be sporting.

People who think Fox News is monolithically conservative have highly selective vision.

Clinton nee Publius| 7.12.10 @ 1:49PM

I've noticed that too. Maybe because I'm a Tea Party member I'm a bit hypersensitive to Mr. Wallace's patented ability to never seem to be prepared enough to deal with liberal guests, yet always seems to have plenty of ammunition and selective quotations on hand to use to torture conservatives.

When he tires of Fox News maybe the Palestinians could hire him as a negotiator; he'd feel right at home there never missing the opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Grzmlyk| 7.12.10 @ 2:09PM

Yes, many times yesterday I thought, why didn't you follow up with an incisive question instead of letting Axelrod slide?

It seemed to me, too, that he wasn't prepared to challenge liberal dogma, but had plenty of ammo for Kyl.

It's sickening - the whole mainstream media's willing participation in cover-ups, lies, looking the other way - and why? Because they love totalitarian control. When will people learn that it's the DEMS who are anti-freedom?

It's the age-old struggle of those of us who see the world as it is and those who are forever lost down the rabbit hole of moral vanity, naïveté, class envy, resentment, guilt, victimhood, corruption, greed, sloth, power-hunger, cynicism and nihilism.

martin j smith| 7.12.10 @ 7:52AM

In line with "keeping it simple":
Number one: What the heck is your problem being surprised at anything the MSM does to lie ? Grow up and stop acting like a hick.
Number two: Fire back. There are ample quotes and recorded speeches of this guy expose his real point of view and thus Obama's
Numbe three: This appointment was done in the dark of night, in secret ( no hearings ) why ? What is being covered up ?

That is it. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now grow up and do some useful work.

Louis Jenkins| 7.12.10 @ 8:18AM

The Pretender n Chief must appoint this man in the dead of night, during the Congressional recess. Otherwise, the hugh and cry of Congress would be too great to ignore. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Only in this case Obumaer is skinning the cat while it is alive. The placement of this man in the directors chair speaks ill of the Health Care package, as though it doesn't need enough to speak ill of it. Berwick is a sham and a travesity.

Petronius| 7.12.10 @ 8:40AM

"Properly configured" means, if any pedestrian without insurance cannot afford a medical procedure, said procedure will also be denied to any and all who can write the check unless they vote Democrat.

Clinton nee Publius| 7.12.10 @ 1:52PM

Then why did you vote for these people? Isn't it a bit late to be getting buyer's remorse? Shouldn't the real issue have been your lack of interest in being educated enough to understand fundamental economic issues pertaining to risk management and optimizing asset net value rations of providers seeking to participate in the Tier 1 programs? Did you take the time to consider the impact of re-leveraging assets using advanced structured financing programs like royalty limited partnerships and how these might fit into the bigger picture of optimizing fiscal outlays and leveraging public contributions, or did you just blindly vote for Obama because you liked his ears?

Nancy in NC| 7.12.10 @ 8:41AM

Previous to the appointment of Berwick, liberal rags (NY Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe) had all lamented that it would be difficult to get him vetted by the Senate. Guess Obama believed them.

Let's face it...the press has sold this country out to the left. I'm not sure there's a way out without bloodshed. And I don't know if there are enough Patriots to stand up and be counted. Americans seems to prefer the road of less resistance.

AMENBRO| 7.13.10 @ 12:14AM

Nancy, how much time you spend in the real NC? Not the TRIAD, TRIANGLE or QUEEN CITY, the real North Carolina. THE SAWMILL GRAVY-N_-BISQUIT NC.

There are a sheetload of willing patriots out here in the country, Plenty pissed off too. When a SAAAALUTe is off colorfully tossed at the BAMMIBAM BUNCH , while passing in these parts its not ignored. Its engender FULL THROATEDLY.

The UNC university system didn't SOOOPIFY all of us.

Nancy in NC| 7.13.10 @ 5:06PM

I've spent almost all my life in the real NC, and never lived in any of those cities. I grew up in the country, between Brevard and Hendersonville. Now I live on the coast near Cherry Point.

I've never seen so much apathy. Oh, people grumble lots, but when the rubber meets the road...can't find them. I'm the precinct chairman and recently held my first organizational meeting. Five people showed up, and they were lukewarm.

In the primary, 8% of voters actually went to the polls. Yeah, I'm discouraged.

But I hope you're right.

Tim*| 7.12.10 @ 8:57AM

This is A Failing Presidency , mismanaged by a black malcontent with an ax to grind.

The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates.

4 Months to November 2nd.

AMENBRO| 7.13.10 @ 12:20AM

Your PopCorn's been pissed in

Film at 11.
Did you see & still remember "The Kentucky Fried Movie". Identical absurdity in all three branches of Government resulting in REVOLUTION in NOVEMBER or eathquake, nuclear fission, Tidal Wave, Tsunami, whatever if you're not into the whole Revolution thing.

Thanks fer the chuckle amidst my unemployed tears sir. I ceased being pissed off along time ago. Now I'm scared shitless.

Caroline Saddy| 7.12.10 @ 10:08AM

Healthcare??? Take care of those who are ill. By now we all may need therapy of some sort.....

Galen| 7.12.10 @ 10:54AM

The Waffren SS used mobile gas chambers disguised as Red Cross Ambulances. The Welfare SS intends to do the same thing with rationing.

Clinton nee Publius| 7.12.10 @ 1:59PM

Waffen SS. More to the point, the 3rd SS Panzer Grenadiers "Totenkopf" ("Death's Head") Division was formed from the "SS-Totenkopfverbande" - the concentration camp guards. Waffen SS were elite German divisions that were "weaponized" elite guards.

When drawing comparative analogies it helps to be on point as one of the problems we have with the liberal-progressive movement is their patent ability to twist facts into convenient packages of half-truths for the benefit of supporting that which is unsupportable.

Louis Jenkins| 7.12.10 @ 11:30AM

http://www.americanthinker.com.....vader.html

Talk about Bawdlerizing, Palin did it.

Paevo| 7.12.10 @ 11:38AM

Everything these SOBs do is straight out of the Progressive handbook. Sad thing is by dint of the Progressivist world view, any inquiry is treated with contempt or worse. The point is to "discpline the soul" of the citizen by convincing the American people that the election of O amounts to the repudiation of American individualism and liberty. Socialized medecine is the surest and quickest way to convince a once-reluctant citizenry that “the state [is] an educational and ethical agency whose positive aid is an indispensable condition of human progress.”

This is a must-read article on said topic: http://article.nationalreview......ler?page=1

A. C. Santore| 7.12.10 @ 12:37PM

And the National Health Service, so beloved of Donald Berwick, is now - right now - being forced to take a giant step back from the abyss. Read the story at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/hea.....ients.html

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.12.10 @ 12:59PM

Folks

Don't be too disturbed.

Some old fart will pop Berwick after Berwick kills his wife....or husband.
Berwick will need Secret Service protection for the rest of his life....along with every communist, (pardon the shorthand), congress critter.

Marc Brown| 7.12.10 @ 2:24PM

Epic fail - Catron writes more incoherent, far right knee jerk nonsense. Berwick is actually your best hope to save your tax dollars. And anyone who doesn't understand that Medicare/Medicaid are essentially redistributive to various degrees is an economic incompetent.

Grzmlyk| 7.12.10 @ 2:58PM

As long as he denies YOU life saving treatment because your life isn't deemed to be worth saving, I could live with that.

You aren't worth my tax dollars.

Marc Brown| 7.12.10 @ 3:35PM

You're swallowing extreme right-wing propaganda – any doctor who denied life saving treatment would be sued down the river and back again.

Grzmlyk| 7.12.10 @ 4:08PM

You have no clue what you're talking about.

In case you haven't noticed, health care rationing means making life/death decisions based on bureaucratic and political considerations, and Berwick has admitted that rationing will be undertaken - it cannot be otherwise when one is allocating limited resources. The problem is, the federal government is ill-suited and dislinclined to exercise judgment when it comes to such allocation - as history has shown in every single instance in which it has peformed this function, including medicare and medicaid. It is always and everywhere the same.

Perhaps you haven't seen the myriad stories coming out of England or Canada. Yeah, i know - those are lies pedled by "extreme right wingers," eh?

Individuals will not be able to sue the federal goverment for denial of care.

I suggest you look at the true direction from which the propaganda is coming.

Take the blinders off - or maybe you're misrepresenting your position - after all, every scheme to kill of select members of the population comes from the left.

Marc Brown| 7.12.10 @ 5:31PM

Sorry, but you've been brainwashed. Many thousands of Americans are denied or priced out of treatment, but no one in Canada, Australia or Western Europe need go without standard care. mostly free. What you're probably confusing is the 'gold standard' of current treatment with experimental treatments unproven to extend life - these are certainly not universally available but they are certainly not available to many Americans.

A. C. Santore| 7.12.10 @ 8:19PM

You wrote, "...but no one in Canada, Australia or Western Europe need go without standard care."

That is flat-out false. I know personally people in the U.K. who were denied care - one because a surgeon assigned to him doesn't do surgery unless the odds of "success" are near 100% because surgeons are judged on their "success rates."

After being denied surgery, he beat his cancer with very aggressive chemotherapy.

And the surgeon's "success rate" wasn't harmed.

"Outcome-based" evaluation, I think it's called over here.

Marc Brown| 7.13.10 @ 2:32PM

What nonsense. If a cancer is operable it will be operated on in the UK, Europe and most places in the world except the US, where there are many uninsured people who do not qualify for charity who live - for a while - with operable cancer. And generalising from one obviously faulty anecdote (where did he get the chemo from?) is just stupid.

terry| 7.13.10 @ 3:40PM

Marc, you are flat out wrong. I have a Canadian friend who brought her 30 yr old son to the US for a brain scan following a seizure incident. The reason? He couldn't get on in Canada for at least 9 months. Not knowing why he had the seizure, waiting this long for a scan was a potential death sentence. He got treated in Rochester NY (mom paid cash) and is now doing well, no thanks to the non-existent "free" care in Canada.

Marc Brown| 7.13.10 @ 5:42PM

Oh dear - another one who things that one anecdote discredits the entire medical system outside the US. You have to give doctors credit sometimes for knowing when the evidence does not point to an urgent scan. One of the huge problems in the US is overtreatment and unnecessary testing.

Jim Hlavac| 7.12.10 @ 5:35PM

The best hope to save my tax dollars, and yours Mr. Brown, would be for the federal government to simply remove itself from the health care industry. Then it would not have to tax anyone for anything, worry about allocation of scarce tax dollars, or even come up with a health care policy whatsoever.

You know, like it sort of does with the computer industry.

We all fully understand that Medicare & Medicaid are redistributive. We also know that they are broke and have unpayable legal obligations, and there's not enough taxes available to cover the payouts promised, and the bureaucrats in charge are hopeless in managing a system now teetering on the edge, as all such redistributive policies and programs must inevitably lead to, as any economic competent can tell you.

Ergo, Berwick cannot be the "best hope" we have for anything. In fact, he's more the like the captain of the Titanic issuing tickets to the life boats.

Marc Brown| 7.12.10 @ 6:00PM

Well Jim, that a solution of sorts but not as we know it. If you want people begging in the streets for drugs to treat cancer and communicable diseases back on the rise then you might have a point. While you're about it you could bring back slavery.

Ken (Old Texican)| 7.12.10 @ 6:34PM

Marc,
You cannot earn your minimum wage from Soros here.
Sorry.
We are grown-ups here.

You sound so stupid, that I am embarrased for you.

Petronius| 7.12.10 @ 8:10PM

Right on JH
The Cray Supers of 30 years ago cost about 3 billion $ to develop and most people didn't know it existed until the publicity they got when Dennis Conner used it for design research on his way to winning the Americas Cup. There isn't a new computer on the market less powerful than that one including the basic desk tops under $500.
People only bitch about the prices of things on which they do not want to spend ANY money.
This is the United States of America; not Sweeden.
Here, it is incumbent on every citizen of sound mind and body to establish and Maintain him or herself in society. Those who's infirmities prevent them from participation in the economic life of our nation should have subsidy at the local or state level. Those unable to pay because they are willfully ignorant, indolent, or incompetent should receive nothing. Their character deficiencies are the bane of every honest taxpayer in the western hemisphere. They wouldn't dare go door to door asking for handouts when any Liberal politician will pick the pockets of the producers for them. Who then is the Slave?

Yosemeti Sam| 7.13.10 @ 11:36AM

" ... And, in fact, some media outlets have followed his example by editing Berwick out of the news. Geoffrey Dickens reports, "[T]here was no mention of the President's decision to make the recess appointment on Tuesday night's NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News or ABC's World News. In fact the embargo on the information continued through Wednesday morning as there were zero mentions on ABC's Good Morning America and CBS's The Early Show." ...."

PEN1, PEN1, PEN1, PEN1 - PEN1!

MedicalMind| 7.13.10 @ 4:49PM

The Berwick decision is really a nonpartisan issue. Do any of you truly believe he would not have been appointed if a republican president was in the White House? Don't get derailed by the master stroke of media-massage the masterminds have used to distract citizens from the REAL issues at hand. Berwick is the chess piece for the international banking industry and national banking and insurance industries. He was just moved into position. These moguls are now one step closer to gaining total control of medicine and its related businesses. I am sure you are all intelligent people. Our country is bankrupt. We owe trillions to China and more money to other lenders. We have no GNP. Do you honestly believe Obama is in charge? He is being manipulated and told what to do and what to say...but he is not in charge. The insurance and banking industries have paid billions, if not trillions in lobbying money and PACS to orchestrate their hostile takeover. There is no one with more power than they, themselves, wield. I know it sounds like just another conspiracy theory, but believe me, it is not. The presidents of our country, be they red or blue, have been the mouthpieces for change ordered by the banking and insurance industry. So don't blame Obama or Bush or Clinton or Regan or any of the other puppets. Shine the light squarely on the perpetrators...the uber-wealthy international financiers who can't seem to say 'when', even when their pockets are overflowing.