Donald Berwick. <a href="http://clinicalcenter.nih.gov/about/news/newsletter/2006/jan06/newsletter.html">National Institutes of Health</a>
Stop me if you’ve heard this one: Harvard professor goes to Washington and becomes a policy wonk. Harvard professor is nominated for a top agency position. Harvard professor becomes conservative bogeyman. Harvard professor returns to Massachusetts and runs for office.
Elizabeth Warren? Nope, Donald Berwick. The Boston Globe reported on Wednesday that the former head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is mulling a run for governor when term-limited Democrat Deval Patrick retires in 2014:
Berwick ran the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and is one of the nation’s leading experts on health cost and quality. Obama installed him using a recess appointment in 2010, but Berwick resigned in late 2011 when Republicans made clear they would strongly oppose his confirmation. At the time, the height of the national debate over Obama’s health care overhaul, Republicans accused Berwick of wanting to ration services, a charge he called a mischaracterization.
Berwick, a Newton pediatrician and longtime Harvard faculty member whose wife is the chairwoman of the department of public utilities in the administration of Governor Deval Patrick, said he has been contemplating a run for the past two or three months, meeting with 40 or 50 people, including political veterans and consultants. He did not give a time frame for a final decision, but said it would be soon, after he meets with more people.
If Republicans thought blocking their appointments would keep Berwick and Warren out of public policy, they may have miscalculated.
