By James Bovard
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=36The computerization of personal health care records is one of the showcases of the stimulus. President Obama promised: "We will make the immediate investments necessary to ensure that within five years all of America's medical records are computerized." Congress ponied up $19 billion to subsidize doctors and hospitals computerizing patient record and creating electronic health care tracking systems.
The ultimate goal of the Obama program is "the utilization of a certified electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014," as the stimulus legislation states. But having a massive electronic database will make it far easier for the government to coerce both doctors and patients. This is a peril as bad as or worse than the Patriot Act.
At this point, less than 20% of the nation's physicians have gone full speed on computerization. Obama's plan offers grants of between $40,000 and $65,000 to doctors' offices who computerize patient records, and up to a million dollars per hospital. But if health records are digitized on the federal dime, it will be far easier for politicians to claim the resulting information.
While the Obama administration is showing the smiley face now, its plan calls for federal penalties for doctors who have not computerized their records by the year 2014.
One of the goals for the new federally subsidized computers is to create systems able "to exchange electronic health information with, and integrate such information from other sources." This is a huge step towards a national database.
Team Obama and their congressional supporters promise that the government will scrupulously respect the privacy of the newly-computerized private medical data. This is reminiscent of President George Bush's 2004 false promise that no American was being wiretapped without a warrant.
The feds have an appalling record for protecting the confidentiality of veterans' health care records. The issue is not whether the personal health information government commandeers will be abused. Instead, it is simply a question of when, where and how it will be exploited.
Medical data does not simply track the number of times a person went to their doctor seeking a cure for a runny nose or stubbed toe. Medical records could include details on long-ago abortions, impotence or sexually transmitted diseases, anti-depressants and details of breakdowns, or HIV Positive status.
Access to personal mental health records makes it easier to exploit someone's vulnerabilities. Psychologists were brought to Guantanamo to exploit the weaknesses of detainees for interrogations. The same peril could be faced by the millions of Americans who received psychological treatment if their records are fed into centralized databases.
When a policeman pulls you over for a speeding ticket, he could quickly access a database with your health records -- including any therapy. Even before he walked up to your car window and demanded your identification, he would know if you had a "problem with authority."
What if the IRS agent who audits you knows all of your secret fears, as disclosed to a therapist years ago? Would you trust the government to play fair in such a situation?
Yet politicians tell us not to worry. Actually, privacy is very lucrative for congressmen: they reap millions of dollars when they betray it. Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) each received more than a million dollars in contributions from health professionals and the pharmaceutical industry since 2000, and each sponsored industry-favored amendments in the stimulus bill that would undermine patient privacy, the Washington Post reported. Campaign contributions will ultimately determine how centralized health data is used.
For people who preferred not to have their data online, as Sue Blevins of the Institute for Health Freedom notes, their health information could be stored electronically on "cards that patients could take with them from doctor to doctor, rather than establishing a centralized system through the federal government." This would allow them to help new doctors to quickly get up to speed on their medical history and to avoid re-taking tests when they switched medical providers.
The perils of a database on 300 million Americans' health records must be seen in light of the other data that the federal government has already gathered. The Pentagon's pursuit of Total Information Awareness on the American people -- combined with Congress's contempt for assuring that federal agencies obey the law -- illustrates why the surveillance horrors have only begun.
The computerization of individuals' health records is another stepping stone towards Obama's proclaimed goal of "universal coverage." But there will be no universal coverage without universal submission. The terms for universal health care coverage would be dictated by political pull, not by humanitarian rhetoric.
The Obama mandate is guaranteed to further subjugate doctors and patients to politicians and bureaucrats. Citizens will be stuck with the huge bills for creating their own digital fetters. But destroying real privacy for a bogus promise of health care is a fool's bargain.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=36