Donald Berwick (Temporarily) Appointed CMS Head

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Yesterday Barack Obama decided that the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services really couldn’t go leaderless any longer, so instead of waiting fruitlessly for Senate Republicans while they obstructed his nominee for another few months he made a recess appointment. Donald Berwick is now the head of CMS.

And what do I think of Berwick? Who cares? I mean, what do I know about the guy? He seems to be a serious, well-respected wonk who’s an expert on healthcare delivery and eminently qualified to run CMS, and I don’t think the Senate should be wasting its time confirming positions like this anyway. It should just be a straight presidential appointment. But via Ezra Klein, Berwick wins my heart forever by making this #2 on his list of proposed hospital reforms:

Patients would determine what food they eat and what clothes they wear in hospitals

The rest of his reforms are pretty good too — though I guess I’m not sure how practical #5 is. In any case, sign me up as a Berwick fan!

And on a less lighthearted note, I repeat that he appears to be a serious, well-respected wonk who’s an expert on healthcare delivery and eminently qualified to run CMS. It’s way past time to put an end to the farcical regime of Senate confirmation that prevents the president from appointing a guy like this. Ezra:

If Berwick cannot find a smooth confirmation, then no industry leaders who are nominated in a time of political polarization can. And that’ll mean, in the long run, that the best people will hang up the phone when they get that call from the White House, as they don’t want to see their past quotes pulled out of context and picked apart, and they don’t want to spend a year in limbo only to settle for a recess appointment, and they won’t be under any illusions that respect from both sides of the aisle and an unimpeachable record will be armor enough.

Roger that.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with The Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate