Donald Berwick, President Obama’s recess appointment to run Medicare and Medicaid, may be making decisions that affect your healthcare in intimate ways. Dr. Berwick doesn’t have to worry about his own healthcare:


 Berwick himself does not have to deal with the anxieties created by limited access to care and the extent of coverage. In a special benefit conferred on him by the board of directors of the Institute for Health Care Improvement, a nonprofit health care charitable organization he created and which he served as chief executive officer, Berwick and his wife will have health coverage “from retirement until death.”


 The provision taking care of Berwick is “deep inside” a report on the nonprofit’s finances and doesn’t mention Berwick by name.


We should all be so lucky–imagine not having to fear Dr. Berwick!