Obama's Medicare chief forced to resign

last updated 8 January 2015

Acting Medicare chief Donald Berwick, President Obama’s nominee to revamp the nation’s health-care system, resigned from his post this week in the face of Republican opposition. Berwick’s confirmation had been blocked by Senate Republicans, who objected to the Harvard professor’s lack of managerial experience as well as his past comments criticizing the U.S. health-care system and complimenting the British National Health Service. Obama appointed Berwick, 65, during a congressional recess in 2010, a process that temporarily circumvented Senate confirmation. Berwick will step down on Dec. 2, and told his staff he leaves “with bittersweet emotions.”