What Donald Berwick Learned as Medicare's Top Bureaucrat: Government is "Complex"
Last week, after just 18 months on the job, Dr. Donald Berwick left his recess-appointed post as the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). What did he learn on the job? Via The New York Times, the good doctor offers the following insight on the federal government:
Dr. Berwick sounded like a professor of political science or a visitor from a foreign country when he recounted his efforts to fathom Washington's ways.
"Government is more complex than I had realized," he said in an understatement. "Government decisions result from the interactions of many internal stakeholders — different agencies and parts of government that, in many cases, have their own world views."
Read my case for and against Berwick here.
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Damn other people standing in my way and not letting me run the entire healthcare system! I hate that other people think things and especially that they think their opinions are equal to mine.
"Government decisions result from the interactions of many internal stakeholders ? different agencies and parts of government that, in many cases, have their own world views."
The BEST.
The BRIGHTEST.
TOP
MEN.
We haz them.
The real crime here is that he served 18 months as head of a cabinet agency without every being approved by Congress, or, I believe, even submitted for approval.
Even though the president's party had 60 votes in the Senate, no less.
The shit is broken.
Wow, you mean the bureaucracy is hard to control and just because you are in charge doesn't mean you can change shit? What a surprise. It amazes me how stupid these people are. Berwick is by any reasonable measure a complete buffoon.
So naive, they don't even realize how stupid they are. I'm sure Berwick has the delusion that he is one of the best and brightest.
The silver lining being that some people who value his opinion will realize that govt is a worthless bureaucracy. Unfortunately their solution will be to throw more money at it or have a bigger plan.
In fact, that's still Berwick's position. He talks about how government doesn't work and how he could achieve more faster in a non-profit, and his answer is... more government!
Harvard is a handicap.
Hey!
Your resume should have a footnote: "*Not that kind of Harvard man."
Typical Harvard grad, finding a (not so) subtle way of pointing out that he went to Harvard.
It's not a secret around here, so I'm not sure that's fair.
What would be fair is to ask whether anyone got Cs at his law school.
Then Pasca fled to Egypt with Mark Antony, and traded in his tweed jacket for loose linens and guyliner.
What was even more stupid was Suderman writing that there was a case to be made for Berwick. Even worse, Suderman cites Berwick's Harvard resume to support his position.
Ivy pedigree coupled with statist orientation? A prescription for mediocrity, at best.
How many hundreds of people graduate from Harvard every year? If you are over the age of 35 and where you went to college is still an important part of your resume, as opposed to just a block checker, you are a loser.
Agreed.
The reality is that Ivy grads are not the best and the brightest. However, too many Reason scribes appear to be impressed by Ivy "credentials".
I would never want to associate with or hire any person who thinks the school they got a piece of paper from is a big deal. Especially Harvard and a few other ego schools.
You know who else went to Harvard?
Brooke Shields? No, I think she's a Princetoner. Dubya? Naw, he's a Yalee. Hmmm....
Dubya went to Harvard Business School, I believe.
Harvard doesn't have a reputation as a school that's difficult to get through, and it doesn't deserve one. It has a reputation as a school that's hard to get into. So we're saying this grown man is qualified to run Medicare because he was a successful high school student?
Ivy + statist orientation > regurgitation and SAT success.
Tebow > Minnesota
Tebow's performance > the expectations of his coach and team president = priceless.
Hitler's court composer, Ernst Hanfstaengl, was a product of Harvard.
John, you make that point again and again. And you should, because it's a good one.
Reason needs to shed its beltway biases.
I have worked ten years on this pran! It is a very precise, and a compricated pran! I am sick of you terrorists fucking it up!
Do you have any idea how fucking BUSY I am?!