The Surgeon General Is Confirmed!

BREAKING NEWS! SURGEON GENERAL DR. REGINA BENJAMIN CONFIRMED BY SENATE ON VOICE VOTE THURSDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 29TH! YAY!

We had been asking for weeks now, why don't we have a Surgeon General? Rachel Maddow started up the quest again on her show on Monday night, October 26, and Dr. Nancy Snyderman of MSNBC continued it on her show Thursday October 29th. Apparently, some of the public attention turned the tide.

The answers to the delay have been varied, contradictory, and byzantine. Apparently it was not because of Dr. Regina Benjamin herself, say the Republicans. They think she's qualified and some have raved about her. And she is, indeed, an amazingly qualified family physician who practices in rural Alabama.

So what were the reasons? If I had a lifetime, I probably could not explain that exactly, but I"ll give it a try. (Harry Reid said it well in a post that Ezra Klein did today.)

Initially, the story was that Senator Mike Enzi of Wyoming and seven Republican colleagues (McConnell, Kyl, Grassley, Cornyn, Alexander, Murkowski and Thune), had written a letter on September 24th stating that they would not support ANY of the nominees for health positions, including Dr. Benjamin, until certain issues were resolved with HHS and CMS. So the Republicans set up a procedural delay on the Surgeon General nomination that effectively kept the vote from coming to the floor of the Senate.

This was done despite the fact that Dr. Benjamin received a unanimous vote of approval from the Senate HELP committee -- from both Republicans and Democrats -- when she was vetted by them earlier in September. So what changed?

What changed was that Medicare had issued a "letter of warning" or whatever you want to call it, to health insurance companies including Humana, regarding communications they had been sending their Medicare beneficiaries about "possible" changes to the Medicare Advantage program. Medicare routinely regulates what health plans can tell members about their benefits. That is not new.

Dawn Teo in a prior Huffington Post piece, explained this kerfuffle in detail.

According to a source with inside knowledge of the way CMS regulates marketing guidelines, Medicare providers are only allowed to communicate with plan members about the benefits they have now, not about possible changes to benefits. They are also not allowed to use plan-related communications to lobby for policies or legislation.

This seemed to be the essence of the dispute that was holding up the Surgeon General's nomination and many others -- what can the government tell health plans about their communications with members? The action by HHS enraged Humana, headquartered in Kentucky and supporter of Senator Mitch McConnell and other Senators as well. After some back and forth in the last month to which I am not privy, HHS apparently backed off and has ended up only requiring that Medicare beneficiaries be allowed to "opt out" of receiving these communications.

Did that solve the problem? It did not and it has not. The Republican Senators who sent the letter then declared that the issue was bigger than this -- it was an issue of freedom of speech, constitutionality, etc. that all companies be allowed to communicate freely with their members about things that might happen as a result of legislation that hasn't happened yet.

Are you with me so far?

In conversations with staffers of Senators Enzi, McConnell and Reid in the past few days, I have learned that there has been a lot of finger pointing going on, the procedural issues are truly complicated, that there was NO "secret hold" on the nomination as had been charged -- it was pretty public by this week -- but the bottom line is that the Humana "thing" is still an issue, and therefore the Republicans will not lift their delaying tactics on the other nominees who are awaiting confirmation until the issue is resolved to their satisfaction.

That means that while Dr. Benjamin has been confirmed, some of the other nominees for HHS positions will remain in limbo while this fight plays out. When I asked the Republican staffers why they couldn't resolve this problem outside of the nomination process -- that is, figure out another way to do it other than holding nominees hostage, they had no specific answer.

On the MSNBC Nancy Snyderman show this past week, I had 2 minutes to try to explain this and the best I could do was to say it's "complicated". And complicated it is. But for the average person, it remains puzzling and irritating that at a time when we needed the voice of our nation's doctor, the Surgeon General, explaining flu vaccine, shortages, protection measures, etc., we did not have a Surgeon General to deliver that message until Friday the 30th of October.

When Senator Harry Reid asked the Senate for "unanimous consent" to proceed with Dr. Benjamin's confirmation vote on Thursday night the 29th, there was not a single objection from any of the 100 Senators. She was confirmed by a voice vote.

The other nominees are still waiting.

Comments

[dems08]

"... in accepting her nomination, Benjamin described her own hardships faced by disease and illness in her own family.

She noted her brother, who died of HIV, as well as her father, who died of high blood pressure and diabetes, and her mother who died of lung cancer.

All of which, she implied, were "preventable diseases."

- wiki

[nirek]

What is new ? the republicans have been and will continue to obstructing everything President Obama and the Democrats have tried to do, and without any good reason!
I for one am tired of their methods , they are acting childishly !

Nirek

[silverball]

...obviously, it was just more "help" and "concern" from the party of NO.......

[bebecca]

This is huge news in light of the fact that H1N1 mania, rightly or wrongly, is taking over the country. Why are you the only one to report this? That's a rhetorical question obviously but it is big news.

[wallyone]

Have these Republican Senators no SHAME, at last? You don't have to answer that; it is self evident. Can they be forced out into the open? One can only hope.

[imfedup]

You're right that the answer is self-evident. All I can hope is that the people who voted for them see through this obstructionism and vote them out of office the next opportunity they get.

[1088]

1 down, 349 more to go! We need to put the pressure on for them to get the President appointees to get confirmed. The White House is being run by a skeleton crew, of which is putting a toil on the few people that is working for 100 people. This is ridiculous now, for enough is enough!!

[nirek]

Unfortunately the republicans will continue to throw roadblocks up every chance they get. Until we vote them all out there will be a hard row to hoe for our President.

Nirek

[Marnie1]

Let's face it the only reason the RepoTaliban backed down was to try to get rid of a powerful talking point against their candidates in 2010.

In the time of a pandemic, in the time of a health care crisis how can the RepoTaliban justify standing in the way of leadership in the person of the Surgeon General, and of basic health care for the sick?

If you are the Taliban, that is just what you do.

Apparently, even Herr Rove couldn't find a PR lie to justify blocking the Surgeon General so the Taliban played nice today.
Tomorrow they will again be the party of No, preaching violence and hatred against their fellow Americans, and doing everything in their power to insure that the health of Americans remains at the level of a second world nation.

[punkingale]

Dr. Benjamin is the third Surgeon General from Alabama. I am so proud!!

[Hopeington]

"HHS has apparently backed off and has ended up only requiring that Medicare beneficiaries be allowed to "opt out" of receiving these communicat­ions."....­..........
insert expletive of choice here______­__________

[Artemis34]

Put another way,

HHS endorsed conservative corporatists lying to patients in a baseless propaganda campaign against their own interests.

So we should change the name to advocates of UNhealthy and INhumane Services.

[MaryanneAZ]

Congratulations, Dr. Bergthold!!! It is way past time to have a Surgeon General at the helm. This Nation has become so cantankerous that even a qualified candidate for office can be held up for political reasons alone. We really need some real change in Washington. Yesterday.

[Artemis34]

So, conservatives and Republicans want to undermine regulation.

When they can't DEregulate, they DISregulate.

And if Republicans in government have to hold the US government hostage to help their conservative friends in corporations violate regulations and laws, all the better.

Public campaign financing now!

[toughcookies]

This is why the GOP is in trouble. H1N1 is rageing and they hide for cover and vote after 8 weeks delay. Same as Afganistan, the economy.

Glad to be a retired Republican....now I will vote the best...who cares what party.

[Artemis34]

The welfare of the American people, even the lives of American people mean nothing to these Republicans.

I'm glad to read you are an ex-Republican. Thanks for joining the human race.

[popman]

You really think the welfare and lives of the American people are in danger because of rethugs playing politics with this SG appointment. ?

Granted it's stupid asinine politics, I would be embarrassed if I was a rethug, but in the long run meaningless and divisive.

These federal agencies are run by the underlings. The head of the dept like Dr. Benjamin are figureheads that watch the politics and the funding.

[DinSea]

exactly. This is why it offends me greatly to be required to register with a party in order to vote. It's not the party, it's the PERSON that I'm voting for.

[Artemis34]

Not all states require you to register a party and I don't know who would not allow you to say you are independent, but then you usually could not vote in primaries.