Obama chooses Dr. Regina Benjamin as next surgeon general

[Jolie Rouge]

Obama chooses Ala doctor as next surgeon general
Lauran Neergaard, Ap Medical Writer
22 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama turned to the Deep South for the next surgeon general, a rural Alabama family physician who made headlines with fierce determination to rebuild her nonprofit medical clinic in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

An administration official said Obama will announce the nomination of Dr. Regina Benjamin later Monday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to upstage the official announcement.

The surgeon general is the people's health advocate, a bully pulpit position that can be tremendously effective with a forceful personality.

Benjamin has that reputation.

A decade ago, the New York Times called her "angel in a white coat," a country doctor who made house calls along the impoverished Gulf Coast, paid whatever her patients could scrounge.

From those early days she has emerged as a national leader in the call to improve health disparities, pushed by the need in her own fishing community of Bayou La Batre, Ala., and its diverse patient mix — where immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos make up a growing part of the population.

Her nonprofit clinic was rebuilt by volunteers after being destroyed by Katrina, only to burn down months later. Benjamin later told of her patients' desperation that she rebuild again, recalling one woman who handed her an envelope with a $7 donation to help.

"If she can find $7, I can figure out the rest," Benjamin said last fall as she received a $500,000 MacArthur Foundation "genius grant," money she dedicated to finishing that job.

Benjamin became the first black woman and the youngest doctor elected to the American Medical Association's board. She also received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights in 1998, and Pope Benedict XVI awarded her the distinguished service medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice.

Her nomination for surgeon general requires Senate confirmation.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090713/ap_on_go_ot/us_surgeon_general

[Jolie Rouge]

Reuters reports that President Obama will announce his surgeon general pick at around 11:30am-ish this morning. She’s Dr. Regina Benjamin, an Alabama rural physician.

Bio info: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/07/13/obama-picks-obamacare-advocate-as-surgeon-general/


Benjamin was the first black woman to head a state medical society, received the Nelson Mandela Award for Health and Human Rights and last fall received a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” the AP says. She was president of the Alabama Medical Association, served on the Board of Trustees for the AMA, was named one of the best leaders in America by US News and World Report…

She also made headlines in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in rebuilding her rural health clinic that serves 4,400 patients.


Dr. Benjamin is a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She was a Kellogg National Fellow and a Rockefeller Next Generation Leader. She serves on numerous boards and committees, including the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, Catholic Health East, Medical Association of the State of Alabama, Alabama Board of Medical Examiners, Alabama State Committee of Public Health, Mobile County Medical Society, Alabama Rural Health Association, Leadership Alabama, Mobile Area Red Cross, Mercy Medical, Mobile Chamber of Commerce, United Way of Mobile, and Deep South Girl Scout Council.

She was appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Act Committee and to the Council of Graduate Medical Education, and is a member of the Step 3 Committee. In Alabama she has served as vice president of the Governor’s Commission on Aging and as a member of the Governor’s Health Care Reform Task Force and the Governor’s Task Force on Children’s Health.

Benjamin will be another administration voice for S-CHIP and Obamacare:


Through her personal practice and advocacy work, Benjamin sees no easy solution to the problem, but hopes for a nationwide movement to provide universal health access for everyone in the country. “I think there certainly can be a minimum benefit that everyone could have and then you could buy more on top of that if you wanted it,” she says. “It can’t just be a government program. It has to be something that everybody is a part of–government, private industry, individuals.”

She cites the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a federal- and state-sponsored program that aims to provide insurance to all uninsured children in the country, as a step in the right direction. “Now, we need to cover the parents of those children,” she says. “If we do that, we’ve come a long way toward providing universal coverage.”


***

At Rose Garden ceremony announcing Dr. Benjamin, Obama insists his health care takeover plan is not dead: “We are going to get this done.”


----


No surprise. The question is, since she believes in "Universal Care"...


Through her personal practice and advocacy work, Benjamin sees no easy solution to the problem, but hopes for a nationwide movement to provide universal health access for everyone in the country.

how many indigent patients was she treating, and was she charging? Walk the talk, as they say. Where was her funding ?


“I think there certainly can be a minimum benefit that everyone could have and then you could buy more on top of that if you wanted it,” she says.


Hey! Guess what? They already have that ...


“…Once classified as a rural health clinic, Benjamin’s practice would receive a lump sum for each Medicare or Medicaid patient she treated rather than having to bill separately for office visits, X-rays, and other services.”

Apparently the paperwork and bureaucracy of Medicare and Medicaid were too much to handle on a patient by patient basis - whodathunkit?

This “lump sum” exception for “rural health clinics” might invite corruption by simply inflating patient numbers - no individual billing needed. I’m not accusing her of anything except avoiding the onerous paperwork, but it still sounds like a sketchy provision in the law.


Forty-nine percent (49%) of U.S. voters now at least somewhat oppose the health care reform plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats, while 46% at least somewhat favor it, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

This marks the first time that more voters lean against the plan than support it. Just two weeks ago, 50% were for the reform plan, and 45% were opposed.

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/business/healthcare/july_2009/49_oppose_health_care_reform_plan_46_favor_it


SCHIP is NOT “government sponsored”. Everyone who smokes has to pay for it in higher cigarette prices. That was the FIRST tax Obama passed on people “making less than $250,000 a year”, a week after he got into office.


Will the Congress be on the same health plan as the rest of the country? Yeah, right. They don’t care what we have to deal with as long as they continue their elitist lifestyle. Disgusting bunch of hypocrites, every one of them.


Just because we don’t think in terms of race over qualifications and philosophy doesn’t mean that we can’t take note of the fact that the left begins with race and considers any other factors last (if at all). There is literally no doubt at all that Sotomayor’s primary qualification is that she’s Hispanic. They’ve been beating on that drum since before she was nominated. See also the thread on the Naval Academy admissions....

----

Will we see any Mamy cartoons from the MSM, as we did with Dr. Rice? You remember her…the lady with massive qualifications for her office?

-----


Looking at her profile on wiki, it sounds someone with a like a great deal of political activity at a young age. Most doctors are busy caring for patients during this period. I wonder what her motivation was for joining all these medical boards? What is her agenda? When does she have time to care for patients, and if she was busy working at local ER’s while operating the rural health clinic, who saw the patients in that clinic? This woman has one political office or another in her blood, and I wonder if she cares more about this office than about the people it is meant to represent? About being on some board of the AMA, over 90% of the doctors say that AMA no longer represents their views. Her desire for nationalized health care places her into a low percent minority among American doctors, and it wouldn’t be surprising if her other views on health and treatment are not shared by the majority of her colleagues. As far as the “genius award”… they gave one to Al Gore for an increasingly discredited theory.

[SHELBYDOG]

Dr. Regina Benjamin is surgeon general choice


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Obama announced Monday his choice for surgeon general -- Dr. Regina Benjamin, a 52-year-old family practice doctor who has spent most of her career tending to the needs of poor patients in a Gulf Coast clinic in Alabama.

"When people couldn't pay, she didn't charge them," Obama said. "When the clinic wasn't making money, she didn't take a salary for herself."

He called Benjamin "a relentless promoter" of programs to fight preventable illness.

Benjamin cited the toll of preventable illness as the reason her family was not with her at the announcement: Her father died with diabetes and high blood pressure; her older brother and only sibling died at age 44 of an HIV-related illness; her mother died of lung cancer after taking up smoking as a girl; her mother's twin brother could not attend because he is at home "struggling for each breath" after a lifetime of smoking.

"I cannot change my family's past, but I can be a voice to improve our nation's health for the future," she said. Watch for more on Benjamin »

Benjamin received a bachelor's degree in 1979 from Xavier University of Louisiana, attended Morehouse School of Medicine from 1980 to 1982, and received a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1984.

She completed her residency in family practice at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in 1987.

Her medical training was paid for by a federal program, the National Health Service Corps, under which medical students promise to work in areas with few doctors in exchange for free tuition, one year of service for every year of paid tuition.

Benjamin founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in 1990 in the fishing village of Bayou La Batre, Alabama, and has served as its CEO since.

Like many of her patients, the clinic has suffered its own life-threatening challenges. It was heavily damaged by Hurricane Georges in 1998 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It also burned to the ground several years ago. But Benjamin rebuilt it after each setback and has continued to offer medical care to the village's 2,500 residents.

Her commitment to them has meant making house calls during the rebuilding, mortgaging her house and maxing out her credit cards, Obama said.

"Regina Benjamin has refused to give up; her patients have refused to give up," he said.

Many of her family practice patients are immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos who make up a third of Bayou La Batre's population, and many of them are uninsured.

Benjamin's expertise goes beyond medicine; she earned a master's in business administration in 1991 from Tulane University. But her focus has not been on making money for herself, she said.

"My priority has always been the needs of my patients," she said. "I decided to treat patients regardless of their ability to pay."

Benjamin said she has worked for years to scrape together the resources needed to keep the clinic doors open and found "it has not been an easy road. ... It should not be this hard for doctors and other health care providers to care for their patients."

She praised Obama "for putting health care reform at the top of your domestic agenda," and said she hopes, if confirmed by the Senate, "to be America's doctor, America's family physician."

"As we work toward a solution to this health care crisis, I promise to communicate directly to the American people, to help guide them through whatever changes come with health care reform. I want to make sure that no one falls through the cracks," she said.

A call to the clinic, where Benjamin was working last week, found it in full swing. "We are just packed in with patients right now, and I'm the only one at the front office," said a breathless woman who then hung up.

Benjamin has served as the associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama's College of Medicine and as president of the State of Alabama Medical Association, from 2002-2003.

She was the first African-American woman board member of the American Medical Association, and she just served a term as chairwoman of the group's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs.

The position of surgeon general, whose effectiveness is largely in its use as a bully pulpit, requires Senate confirmation.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/07/13/surgeon.general/

[SHELBYDOG]

Regina Benjamin, M.D., M.B.A.



A graduate of Xavier University, Morehouse School of Medicine, and the University of Alabama School of Medicine, Dr. Regina Benjamin chose to return to the region that she grew up in, starting a family practice in Bayou la Batre, Alabama (a small shrimping village along the gulf coast). After several years moonlighting in emergency rooms and nursing homes to keep her practice open, and with an MBA from Tulane under her belt, Dr. Benjamin converted her medical office into a small rural health clinic dedicated to serving the large indigent population in her community.

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.




Information provided by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured
Publish Date: 2003-01-01

http://www.kff.org/about/benjamin.cfm

[freeby4me]

If this was a man he'd be patted on the back and pedestalled for being a "Go getter" and "Going after what he wants" but she is not. Thats pretty interesting coming from you Jolie.

What is wrong with her having high dreams from the beginning and doing what she can to achieve them?

[hesnothere]

Why anyone takes Michelle Malkin seriously is beyond me. I’m still scratching my head over her ridiculous claim that a paisley scarf worn by Rachel Ray looked just like a Muslim Keffiyeh.
Like so many others, Michelle Malkin gives Conservatism a bad name. Like Ann Coulter, her views are that of an extremist; her nutty opinions are largely indefensible, and seem solely devised to garner her publicity.

[SHELBYDOG]

Why anyone takes Michelle Malkin seriously is beyond me. I’m still scratching my head over her ridiculous claim that a paisley scarf worn by Rachel Ray looked just like a Muslim Keffiyeh.
Like so many others, Michelle Malkin gives Conservatism a bad name. Like Ann Coulter, her views are that of an extremist; her nutty opinions are largely indefensible, and seem solely devised to garner her publicity.

I quit listening to her after the show down between her & Chris Matthews on John Kerry & the repubs Swift Boat allegations.
I have no use for anyone knocking a Vietnam Vet & the medals he earned serving our country at war.
She's scum!

[Jolie Rouge]

If this was a man he'd be patted on the back and pedestalled for being a "Go getter" and "Going after what he wants" but she is not. Thats pretty interesting coming from you Jolie.

What is wrong with her having high dreams from the beginning and doing what she can to achieve them?

If you read my post you will find that I do recognise her efforts. However, I take a dim view of those who wish to FORCE "Universal Care" down our throats....


“I think there certainly can be a minimum benefit that everyone could have and then you could buy more on top of that if you wanted it,” she says.

Hey! Guess what? They already have that ...


It is called viewing critically ANYONE who is put forth for a nomination... not just "trusting our politicians" to do what is "right" for us - the people, the taxpayers... I thought we had all agreed that they are a bunch of self serving twits. Note that they are exempting themselves and their families from the requirements of what they are proposing for the rest of us.



I quit listening to her after the show down between her & Chris Matthews on John Kerry & the repubs Swift Boat allegations. I have no use for anyone knocking a Vietnam Vet & the medals he earned serving our country at war.

Considering what KERRY had to say about his fellow soldiers I find that position to be contridictory at best. My oldest brother is a Vietnam Vet and the things HE has to say about Kerry and his ilk I could not begin to post here as the filters would star out most of the terms anyway.

So you don't listen to her, but you feel comfortable condemning anything she might say ?? Liberal tolerance at it's best once again ??

[SHELBYDOG]

Considering what KERRY had to say about his fellow soldiers I find that position to be contridictory at best. My oldest brother is a Vietnam Vet and the things HE has to say about Kerry and his ilk I could not begin to post here as the filters would star out most of the terms anyway.

So you don't listen to her, but you feel comfortable condemning anything she might say ?? Liberal tolerance at it's best once again ??

We're all entitled to our opinions, sorry your brother has ill feelings about Kerry, but he's not a part of my beef with Michelle Malkins BS.
What's really ashame is people are still condeming Vietnam Vets for their service in that ruthless war. This doesn't happen in todays world & we make damn sure it will never happen to our troops again & all parties support our troops today, something Vietnam Vets were denied of than & obviously still today.
Now there's Republican tolerance on war at it's best.

[Jolie Rouge]

We're all entitled to our opinions, sorry your brother has ill feelings about Kerry, but he's not a part of my beef with Michelle Malkins BS.

I'm sorry, when I read your post :


I quit listening to her after the show down between her & Chris Matthews on John Kerry & the repubs Swift Boat allegations.

I have no use for anyone knocking a Vietnam Vet & the medals he earned serving our country at war.

She's scum!

I was under the impression that was part of the reason you don't listen to her based on her view of Kerry and his actions... :confused:

[Jolie Rouge]

What's really ashame is people are still condeming Vietnam Vets for their service in that ruthless war.

You do understand that it is in part because of the things that Kerry and men like him testified to - some that were never substandciated, verified or proven - that are the reason that our soldiers were met with screams of "Baby Killer", spit upon, and worse ? The stories of crimes never commited, atrocites never proven, and tales woven and embrordied, the horrors of war magnified and elaborated beyond belief are the price men like my brother and his fellow soldiers paid because of men like Kerry.


This doesn't happen in todays world & we make damn sure it will never happen to our troops again & all parties support our troops today, something Vietnam Vets were denied of than & obviously still today.

Make no mistake ... the same things are STILL going on today and it is because of people like Malkin that these fakeres are revealed for what they are....

Google "Winter Soldiers"; Jesse MacBeth, Scott Thomas, Rick Duncan ...

[Jolie Rouge]

Slightly off topic ....

Into the lion’s den: My encounter with The View
By Michelle Malkin • August 3, 2009 12:42 PM

Just finished up on The View, where I sparred with the ladies about Culture of Corruption.

You can watch a bit of it at RCP http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2009/08/03/michelle_malkin_on_the_view.html and I’m sure Hot Air will have highlights up soon... http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/03/open-thread-michelle-on-the-view/

Update: Here’s the vid at Hot Air. http://hotair.com/archives/2009/08/03/video-michelle-makes-new-friend-on-the-view/

Best part: Every single member of the audience got a copy of the book!

Second best part: Whoopi Goldberg, who didn’t read the book, asserting that I called the administration the most corrupt ever in the book when I was on the set — and then waiting for me to leave to falsely assert that “that young lady” said it on the Today Show.

No, I didn’t. Here’s the video. http://hotair.com/archives/2009/07/29/video-michelle-talks-obamas-racial-opportunism-on-the-today-show/



As I said on the show, my argument is that the Obama administration needs to be held to its own standards and rhetoric — and by that standard, it is one of the most corrupt in recent history — a point I made on the Hannity show last Monday when I launched. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,535094,00.html


You know you’ve won the argument when the ladies of the View are reduced to arguing how corrupt Team Obama is, and not whether.

Really should go read the "comments" ... @ http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/03/into-the-lions-den-my-encounter-with-the-view/

:sheep: :sheep: :sheep: :sheep:



Michelle Malkin delivers early Christmas present to conservatives by leaving VIEW liberals stunned
Posted by: Sister Toldjah on August 3, 2009 at 8:18 pm

It’s been one of those typical crazy, hectic “so glad it’s over” Mondays, so I was elated when I got home this evening to find out that not only was Michelle Malkin on The View, but that she left the liberal “womyn” on the show I refuse to watch again stunned and sometimes speechless while talking about the culture of corruption in the Obama administration.

Catherine Maggio from Newsbusters has a good recap of what was said. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/catherine-maggio/2009/08/03/malkin-schools-view-about-obama-administration-corruption

And of course this post wouldn’t be complete without a video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07KsEuVMw1w



Joy Behar, who is so obsessed with the alleged “illegality” of the Iraq war, didn’t know what hit her. Love it.

Game. Set. Match - Malkin.

Related: Kruggie – yes – Kruggie defends MM against “progressive” bloggers. Wonders never will cease! http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/in-defense-of-michelle-malkin/


Responses to “Michelle Malkin delivers early Christmas present to conservatives by leaving VIEW liberals stunned”


Anthony (Los Angeles) says:
August 3, 2009 at 9:14 pm

I’m not a big fan of Michelle Malkin, because she too easily gives in to snark and intransigence on some issues; I think it hurts her appeal beyond the “core” Right.

That said, when she’s on the trail of a story, I’ve seen few journalists more dogged or thorough. (Her story of Commerce Secretary Locke’s likely dirty money from China is compelling) I just received my copy of Culture of Corruption today, and the footnoting is impressive. I’m looking forward to reading it and consider it almost a sequel to the warnings given by David Freddoso in his The Case Against Barack Obama.

Anyway, and getting back on track, yeah, she can annoy me, but watching her take down those nitwits on The View was a joy to behold.



NC Cop says:
August 3, 2009 at 9:52 pm

Of course she did, she used the truth and facts. No liberal argument can stand up to that.

Poor little Joy. I think she’s very depressed that Bush is gone. She has nobody to blame her lousy and washed up career on. Poor baby.

http://sistertoldjah.com/archives/2009/08/03/michelle-malkin-delivers-early-christmas-present-to-conservatives/



:dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:


When they can’t attack the message…
…they attack the messenger.
By Michelle Malkin • August 2, 2009


This is all they’ve got ?
(vid at link if you can stomach it : http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/heather/real-time-bill-maher-mocks-malkin-her-new )

That’s it.

Not a single refutation of a single fact in the book.

Bill Maher can’t bring himself to open it and read what’s in between the covers. Why? Because he and all of his enablers in Hollywood, D.C., and Manhattan are in a state of denial about Obama’s Culture of Corruption. They don’t want to hear it, see it, or smell it. Unlike many brave whistleblowers who worked in the Obama trenches and who have seen the light, the liberal elites don’t want to know the truth.

Maher sneers that Obama has only been in office six months.

Hey, Einstein: That. Is. The. Freaking. Point.


***

Here’s another pathetic attempt to “debunk” Culture of Corruption from the lavishly-funded operatives at Media Matters http://mediamatters.org/research/200908010006 who claim I “distorted” Liza Mundy’s biograpy of Michelle Obama because — gasp! — I didn’t mention in my book that Mrs. Obama’s father had multiple sclerosis.

The Media Matters crew tosses out various ad hominems and non sequiturs, but fails to refute my fundamental point: Michelle Robinson Obama was literally born into the Daley patronage machine and political corruptocracy. She worked for that machine, followed Daley legal counsel Valerie Jarrett to the University of Chicago Medical Center, saw her salary triple after her husband won his Senate seat, and brought Jarrett and other Daley intimates into the East Wing. The nutroots defend Mrs. O by citing her “cynicism” of machine politics.

Well, yes. She’s very good at expressing “cynicism” and disdain for the dance partners who brought her to power. It’s the Obama Way.


:dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:


http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/02/when-they-cant-attack-the-message/

Again ... read the "comments" at the link ... very entertaining ... ;) :)