Benjamin is no Gupta (and that's a very good thing)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

President Obama today introduced Dr. Regina Benjamin as the new U.S. surgeon general (pending confirmation, of course). I don't know anything about her -- in fact, I'd never heard of her until today. Looking over her career accomplishments, though -- notably: family physician, founder of the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic (which was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina), government appointee (both federally and in Alabama), current president of the Alabama Medical Association -- she seems like a deserving choice.

Is she up for the largely symbolic role of U.S. surgeon general, a job that is more public relations than medicine? Hopefully yes.

At the very least, she's no Sanjay Gupta, the CNN celebrity doctor who shills for Big Pharma and promotes the interests of the profit-driven medical establishment, a flack whom I wrote about here, here, and here, back when it looked like, as Obama's first choice, he was poised to become surgeon general.

Suffice it here to say that I don't much care for him.

While Benjamin may lack Gupta's star power and telegenic splendor (though, to be fair, I haven't yet seen her on TV), she has not, from what I can tell, compromised herself or her principles in pursuit of the god-almighty dollar. Yes, it's important to have someone in the position who is a good communicator, and (who knows?) she may very well be one, but I'll take the family physician who specializes in rural health over the media darling with the corporate connections regardless.

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Interestingly, Obama prefaced his introduction of Dr. Benjamin with a re-statement of his commitment to health-care reform. He didn't utter the words "public" and "option" together, nor did he say anything about government-run care, preferring instead to emphasize expanding coverage and ensuring choice, which could be telling.

I must admit, I'm worried. What does expanding coverage mean? Not universal coverage, to be sure, and not guaranteed coverage. And what does choice mean? More private options?

Still, Obama was admirably adamant about the need for reform:

I know there are those who believe we should wait to solve this problem, or take a more incremental approach, or simply do nothing. But this is the kind of criticism we heard when the country tried to pass Medicare, a program that is now providing quality care to generations of American seniors. It's the kind of criticism we heard when we tried to pass the Children's Health Insurance Program, which has provided quality care and coverage to millions of kids. It's the same Washington thinking that has ignored big challenges and put off tough decisions for decades. And it is precisely that kind of small thinking that has led us into the current predicament.

So make no mistake: The status quo on health care is no longer an option for the United States of America.

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This is no longer a problem we can wait to fix. This is about who we are as a country. Health care reform is about every family's health, but it's also about the health of the economy.

So I just want to put everybody on notice, because there was a lot of chatter during the week that I was gone: We are going to get this done. Inaction is not an option. And for those nay-sayers and cynics who think that this is not going to happen, don't bet against us. We are going to make this thing happen, because the American people desperately need it.

Big talk. I just hope he backs it up not with some tinkering of the status quo but with wholesale change, with big thinking that includes a robust public option.

Anything less would be not just a disappointment but a failure.