Donald Berwick on Redistributing Wealth

An excerpt from a 2008 speech by Donald Berwick, President Obama's nominee to head the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, speaking to a British audience about why he favors government-run health care.

Learn more at http://healthpolicy-news.org

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  News & Politics

[Heather Pate]

Is this part of our secret comment book!?! Robert Gibbs is talking down to us or to anyone who dare question the Almighty Obama!

[Wesley Sugai]

....you're correct. I'm a solo practice physician in a rural and isolated area accessible only by air. 80% of my patients are already on government "universal" health care called Medicaid and I am only one of the few private docs that participate with this program. Only 8-13% of docs participate. Why? Because Medicaid pays only $0.60 out of every dollar I charge them. ObamaCare will force patients into Medicaid. We will have insurance, but no one will have doctors.

[Tabitha Taylor]

Amen to that, but the 'progressives' feel that they have many rights such as our paying for their abortion on demand & crappy healthcare.. Religious conscience be damned! The constitution is so yesterday & don't you know, they know religion just isn't progressive.. Unless it's radical Islam then you know, they love that! These people are insanity defined & dangerous to the whole planet. Liberalism is a mental disorder that we all suffer through while they are convinced they're doing us a favor.

[Tabitha Taylor]

U R repeating liberal lies I am a business owner & this thing is a nightmare. It even has people in Canada & the UK upset because they could at least come to the US & spend their own $ for healthcare!! Now we have a bad version of theirs! 83% of Drs will be quitting. Dr owned hospitals are excluded. Catholic ones will shut down B4 letting him force them to abort babies. Here you are, a new lesson. "Secret Death Panels? You Betya"! /watch?v=xW4J84vjaZU&feature=B­Fa&list=UUQB4QUwhEOp2xVGrCTuje­MQ

[romulusguerrero]

Doctors run health care and that has not and will not change. People who think Obamacare will have bureaucrats run health care are stupid and people who perpetuate this lie are as stupid and/or devious. Health insurance reform is necessary and the PPACA is a step in the right direction to keep costs down, but there's still a long way to go before costs of health care (and the amount of the budget paying for those things) are significantly reduced.

[ronnymexico23]

There's no such thing as a "right to healthcare". For one to receive healthcare, it requires another to give or offer it. Coercing one to provide a service to another seems at odds with the concept of a right. Where am I wrong?

[CuredWithStyle]

In the 60's we had the best healthcare system in the world, then decades of govt beuracracies and welfare programs involvement in healthcare along with absurd regulations and corperatist taxes make healthcare so inefficient and costly. Look at the college in industry before govt involement as the DOE was created in the 70;s. Tuition and corperatist govt loan laws and funding create this huge bubble. Same with housing. People could go on and on about govt invovelemt haha .

[mlevasse1282]

and he is right

[dankTiger7]

the "40" people who disliked this must be "occupying"

[CTMechE]

The US is not a democracy, it's a republic. The issue often mentioned but rarely discussed is whether or not health care is a right or a responsibility. I believe it's a responsibility, NOT a right. NOBODY has the right to demand that another person take care of them, especially not in the manner of their own choosing. Our personal health is not entirely pot luck, we're all responsible to some degree, and I don't think it's fair to ask others to pay for their choices.

[MrCMFields]

I agree w/ you that healthcare is not a right in the Constitution, but I do believe that LEGAL Americans should have some safety net for health-related issues. I am one of those millions who lost their job & even though I've been searching & applying for jobs (that I am qualified for), I cannot find work. I lost my healthcare & then got sick & almost died - I paid for ALL my bills. It's people like me that need the healthcare - we fall in the gap, but illegals get it FREE.