[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 66 (Wednesday, May 5, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H3129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              CMS NOMINEE

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, I'm very concerned about the President's new 
nominee for the CMS, Dr. Donald Berwick. In my opinion, Dr. Berwick's 
positions on health care represent a step toward more government 
control of the doctor-patient relationship. Dr. Berwick opposes efforts 
to make patients more cost sensitive, stating that such measures have 
``no rationale in science, ethics, or evidence.'' But there is plenty 
of evidence that consumers behave differently when the costs of a 
product are made clear.
  Dr. Berwick praised the British commission responsible for rationing 
care as ``extremely effective and a conscientious, valuable, and 
knowledge-building system.'' This is the same system that routinely 
denies care in the name of cost savings and has led to dramatically 
lower cancer survival rates than the U.S.
  Americans don't want a system of poor service and long waiting 
periods, but that's what we might expect under a CMS administrator who 
has been knighted for his service to the British National Health 
Service.

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