Astrue Called "Hack" By Candidate For Governor
From the
Boston Globe:
[F]issures between Michael Astrue and Donald Berwick, a Democratic
candidate for governor, opened in early 2011 when Berwick, then
administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services,
summoned Astrue, then Social Security Administration commissioner, to
his office.
Berwick wanted Social Security to help pay for a piece of the health
care insurance marketplace, which was in the planning stages and due to
go online almost three years later in October 2013.
Astrue said he felt bullied by Berwick and rebuffed him.
Now they have brought the fallout from their
Washington dispute back to Cambridge, where, in new roles, they are
locked in an increasingly fierce feud with implications for the 2014
campaign for governor.
Astrue, a Republican biotechnology chief executive and supporter of
GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker, said in news media
appearances in recent weeks and in an interview with the Globe that
Berwick’s weak leadership and “dawdling’’ during his tenure at CMS in
2010 and 2011 were the root cause of the embarrassing failures this
month of Obama’s insurance marketplace.
Berwick, asked by the Globe to respond, vigorously denied Astrue’s
accusations. The former Social Security commissioner, he said, is a
“hack’’ and a “right-wing pundit’’ who is “just not credible.’’
“His comments are basically ridiculous,” said Berwick, who is seeking
his party’s nomination for governor while serving as a fellow at the
nonprofit health care think tank he founded in Cambridge. “He’s
uninformed, and he’s politically motivated. I met with that guy probably
twice in my life.” ...
4 comments:
If Astrue was smart, he would keep his mouth shut. The Huntington scandal and similar improprities and fraud can be laid at his feet, as he pushed an agenda of paying cases early and often regardless of merit.
If you want to discuss the merits of the Affordable Care Act there are plenty of places to do it. This isn't one.
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