Health care has no intrinsic value at all, none. Health does.

This is an amazingly wonderful and insightful quote.  Don Berwick, for twentyone years has thoughtfully led with integrity and compassion.  I can imagine now his confimation hearings at which those with no heart will accuse him or rationing and “death panels”.  If they only understood.

Health care has no intrinsic value at all, none. Health does. Joy does. Peace does. . . The best health care is the very least health care we need to gain the long, full and joyous lives that we really want. The best hospital bed is empty, not full. The best CT scan is the one we don’t need to take. The best doctor visit is the one we don’t need to have.

— Donald Berwick, President Obama’s appointee to run CMS