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Third Emanuel Brother Key to Health Reform

The eldest, Zeke, goes from bioethicist to administration guru

By Kevin Spak, Newser Staff

Posted Jun 17, 2009 5:26 PM CDT

(Newser) – Zeke Emanuel may not get the press brothers Rahm and Ari do, but he’s a figure to watch as the health-care reform debate heats up, the New Republic reports. As head of the National Institute of Health’s bioethics division, Emanuel became one of the most influential bioethicists in the US. Now he’s working for the Office of Management and Budget in a nebulous “special adviser” position.

Peter Orszag’s OMB is full of such intellectual heavyweights, and the eldest Emanuel brother is its go-to health-care thinker. He has argued against paying physicians on a per-treatment basis, and he devised the “insurance exchange,” both key points in President Obama’s plan. And when his ideas are challenged, Zeke is just as tenacious as Rahm. “Ironically, I’m more brute force than he is,” he says.

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Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel, special adviser for health care at the Office of Management and Budget, speaks at the American Medical Association's annual conference in Washington, March 11, 2009. (AP Photo)

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If I wasn't born into a particular kind of Jewish family at a particular moment in history, would I have been a doctor? No chance. - Ezekiel "Zeke" Emanuel, contemplating his identity in his book The Ends of
Human Life

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Third Emanuel Brother Key to Health Reform