Medicare and Medicaid chief Donald Berwick will testify before a congressional committee Wednesday for the first time since President Barack Obama avoided the Senate confirmation process -- to Republican protest -- by using a recess appointment to install Berwick as the administrator of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
"Berwick's nomination to run the Center for Medicare and Medicare Services drew harsh criticism from Republicans," Politico reports. "They seized on his professed admiration for Britain's National Health Service, deriding the Harvard professor as an ominous 'rationer in chief.'" And, questions along those lines are likely to be unleashed (Kliff, 11/16).
Kaiser Health News posted an advance copy of his prepared statement, and also has a resource guide, which includes Berwick's own words about the British health care system.