Obama chooses Ala doctor as next surgeon general

[Buoy]

Does anyone else see the irony in that she was previously running a not-for-profit...

She should fit right in when we have our new health care system in place...:willy_nilly:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090713/ap_on_go_ot/us_surgeon_general;_ylt=AkY6zSLO092ZOZF8f9kcITqs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTJqYXEza3RiB GFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwNzEzL3VzX3N1cmdlb25fZ2VuZXJhbARjcG9zAzIEcG9zAzgEc2VjA3lu X3RvcF9zdG9yeQRzbGsDb2JhbWFjaG9vc2Vz

[jayboat]

Good grief, could you repubs be any BIGGER douchebags?
I guess you're a Harriet Miers kinda guy. :ack2:

KOS alert.:willy_nilly:

What's she done? It's the opposite of quitting.

Benjamin was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and just last fall received a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant." But she made headlines in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with her determination to rebuild her rural health clinic in Bayou La Batre, Alabama, which serves 4,400 patients who would be hard-pressed to find care elsewhere.

More from the MacArthur Foundation:

Despite scarce resources, Benjamin has painstakingly rebuilt her clinic after each disaster and set up networks to maintain contact with patients scattered across multiple evacuation sites. She has established a family practice that allows her to treat all incoming patients, many of whom are uninsured, and frequently travels by pickup truck to care for the most isolated and immobile in her region.

Here's a more prosaic look from Readers Digest:

A Healing Force

How one heroic doctor is helping her hurricane-ravaged town get back on the map (http://www.rd.com/your-america-inspiring-people-and-stories/dr-regina-benjamin----a-healing-force/article19591.html)
Want more?

Her extraordinary dedication and self-sacrifice have already won Dr. Benjamin national recognition. In 1995, she became the first African-American woman, and the first person under 40, to be elected to the American Medical Association (AMA) Board of Trustees. Dr. Benjamin also serves on the Board of Physicians for Human Rights.

Dr. Benjamin is a 1998 Mandela Award Winner, a former Kellogg National Fellow, has been featured as ABC Television's Person of the Week, and in 1996 was chosen by CBS This Morning as Woman of the Year.

Here's the official word, via press release:

Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Regina M. Benjamin as Surgeon General, Department of Health and Human Services.

President Obama said, "Health care reform is about every family’s health and the health of our economy. And if there’s anyone who understands the urgency of meeting this challenge in a personal and powerful way, it’s the woman who will become our nation’s next Surgeon General, Doctor Regina Benjamin. I look forward working with her in the months and years ahead."
Having someone intimately familiar with rural issues and access issues, primary care and how the government can help and hinder that care is a real plus.

She joins such notables as Margaret Hamburg (FDA), Secretaries Napolitano (DHS), Sebelius (HHS) and Clinton (State) as agency and department heads for a complement of strong, visible and supremely competent women appointed by Obama (Sonia Sotomayor is soon to join them. As of this writing, by the way, none of them have quit their posts.)

We need a Surgeon General to speak for and to the public. Whether it's pandemic preparedness or health reform, someone has to explain where we are and where we need to go. This one shows exceptional promise as a communicator.

[jayboat]

Or maybe you prefer bush jr's approach:

Former Surgeon General Carmona Says Administration Censored Him
By Mary Agnes Carey

Former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona told Congress Tuesday that Bush administration officials repeatedly stopped him from speaking out on major health care issues such as stem cell research, edited his speeches and prevented publication of significant health reports because they did not fit the president’s political agenda.

“The reality is that the nation’s doctor has been marginalized and relegated to a position with no independent budget, and with supervisors who are political appointees with partisan agendas,” Carmona told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is ignored, marginalized or simply buried.” Carmona was surgeon general from 2002 to 2006.

[jayboat]

More on Dr. Benjamin:

Just about everyone with two hands applauded Obama's selection of Dr. Regina Benjamin. Health Care for America Now, which supports health care reform that includes a public plan, described her as someone who "appreciates the immediate need for comprehensive reform." The American Medical Association, on whose board Benjamin served, praised her as "a true professional who puts her patients first." Dr. Georges Benjamin, director of the American Public Health Administration, says she's a "good choice." (And not just because they have the same name.)

Driving the praise was Benjamin's compelling personal story, ... Benjamin studied at Morehouse and the Alabama School of Medicine; started a family practice in a fishing village called Bayou la Batre, Ala.; got her MBA at Tulane; and converted her practice to a medical clinic for the poor. Those who couldn't pay, she treated for free. After Hurricanes George and Katrina twice destroyed the clinic, she went into debt to rebuild it. Along the way, she was named one of Time's "50 Future Leaders Age 40 and Under" and won a MacArthur "genius" grant.

[Ratickle]

Good info Jay, thanks for taking the time.
Saved me a bunch of it.....

[Buoy]

Jay, I won't take away from her credentials.
Quite honestly, I applaud what she has been able to achieve.
I don't see the significance of "Benjamin was the first black woman to head a state medical society", I personally don't see where race or gender are significant, or for that matter being the "first, of that race and gender".
That was not my point at all.
The fact that she is already accustomed to working with nearly no funding, or income seems to be the way this health care program is headed for all involved.
We have several Doctors on the board here, and I'll be curious to see what their reaction will be to what is to come.
It certainly does not look good for health care providers.
And, it doesn't look good for labor unions either if this is the case.
Have you ever noticed that when construction is completely in the tank, that hospitals still have multi-million dollar projects going on?
I know guys that have been union carpenters, pipefitters, etc... They have literally spent their entire career working at the same hospital moving from one project to another, while working for the same GC.
All those hospital improvements are going to be gone - as well as all those jobs for the guys building the improvements.

[Buoy]

Also let me state - you attack me as a republican.
I never once made any reference to party affiliation.
I just think the whole idea is a mistake, regardless of who came up with it.
You are the one turning this into a partisan issue.

[Ted]

Hmm two check marks and ready for socialized medicine, yep shoe in.....


<cough> Jocelyn Elders <cough>

[cigdaze]

Good grief, could you repubs be any BIGGER douchebags?


Jay, it would be so much easier - for all of us - if you didn't need to resort to this. Come on, man.