'O' Rations

Byline: Jennifer Harper, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

'O' RATIONS

The decision is not whether or not we will ration care. The decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open, Dr. Donald Berwick told a National Institutes of Health publication about a year ago, back when he was simply president and CEO of the Institute for Health Care Improvement. Now that President Obama has appointed Dr. Berwick to serve as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - an instrumental role in implementing health care reform - the worries have begun.

Donald Berwick is a one-man death panel. While Americans may not remember the agency he heads, he will quickly become known as Obama's rationing czar, predicts David N. O'Steen, executive director of the National Right to Life, where medical ethicists fret that Dr. Berwick's policies could ultimately deny lifesaving …

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information: Article title: 'O' Rations. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: July 8, 2010. Page number: A02. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2010 Gale Group.

This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.