NEJM Perspective Discusses Role of Presidential Health Care Advisers

"Speaking Truth to Power -- The Need for, and Perils of, Health Policy Expertise in the White House," New England Journal of Medicine: In the NEJM perspective, Jacob Hacker -- a professor of political science at the University of California-Berkeley, co-director of the Berkeley School of Law's Center on Health, Economic and Family Security and a fellow at the New America Foundation -- discusses the role of presidential health care advisers. He writes that although the expert adviser "has special knowledge, training and skills -- all of which are needed more than ever in the White House" -- the "question is whether these talents can really be used, or be useful, in the bareknuckles world of American politics -- and, more important, whether the values they embody can be upheld when science, advocacy and democracy collide." According to Hacker, "even the best experts need to know when to defer to the political process, to see the purpose of their craft as facilitating democratic debate rather than providing final answers once Americans have decided on the questions" (Hacker, New England Journal of Medicine, 9/11).