The Gabber Newspaper | Gulfport Florida

Health Care For The Government

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said a few months back that Obama Care had to be passed before we’d know what was in it. Now, we’re beginning to know.
For instance, we now know that the provision requiring everyone to have medical insurance or pay a penalty is a tax. Of course that’s what many of the opponents said at the outset. It’s also what President Obama denied, vehemently, in an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC. Now, the Obama administration is agreeing with Stephanopoulos. The penalty, they argue in response to lawsuits against ObamaCare, is indeed a tax and the federal government has the right to tax. There. That settles that.
Then there’s the issue about medical records. Records weren’t a direct part of the ObamaCare bill, but a $19 billion part of the 2009 first stimulus bill. It requires that by 2014 all physicians and all related medical facilities have in place an interactive electronic medical records system.
This had two professed goals. One was to enable care givers to go on line and acquire complete medical records for their patients. The other was to provide the government with enough data to determine best practices for specific medical conditions. These would then be passed on to the medical community to reduce the costs of care. Patients and care givers would be given clear directions for the best care. No need to mess around. The answer is in the data base.
Of course, one of the concerns is that you may be different. That is, your physical system, your chemical system, your mental system might be different than what the consensus data show. Data from 300 million people can be helpful, but ultimately has to be applied to individuals.
Latest news from the administration is that the patient doctor relationship will not be breached. Some people have been worried about their obesity being an identifiable part of the data base. In other words, your BMI, a calculation relating your weight to your height and thus your obesity (or not), would be established and something done about it. Specific treatment, taxes, no treatment, part of a data base for rationing? We don’t know.
However, what we do know is that the government is now saying that not everything has to be in your records. For instance, your being HIV positive would not, or your having had an abortion. Other exemptions are coming, it was indicated. Well, so much for helping out on medical emergencies (instant access). I would think HIV positive is pretty important.
Also, I could argue that since abortion rights are established under the privacy aspects within the U.S. Constitution (Roe vs. Wade), then no one should have to provide the government with bodily information. However, there’s another problem. If you order your doctor to withhold information from the government, that doctor isn’t going to get financial help for his or her electronic system. Worse, the doctor could be kicked out of the Medicare or Medicaid system.
There will be more to come, but don’t count on what’s to come in the health bill to be about you and your health. It’s not about the individual. It’s about the government.
More next week.