ObamaCare and Big Brother.
The Obama administration adamantly denies it, but rumors are circulating in Washington that his Department of Health and Human Services is already collecting Americans’ private health information, or at least preparing itself to do so.
Rep. Denny Rehberg, the chairman of the House appropriations subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services and Education formalized the rumors by asking about them in a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Thursday.“Specifically, I have been told that HHS has already procured a contractor to build a database and that this contractor has already taken steps to acquire personal health care data from a large claims database,” Rehberg wrote. “I would like to know if these reports are, in fact, true. If so, it would represent an egregious violation of the privacy rights that the American public rightfully demands.”
Rehberg’s question relates to an Obamacare implementation rule which HHS officials proposed recently but haven’t yet formally implemented. HHS spokeswoman Erin Shields told The Daily Caller that these rules aren’t final, and added that the Obama administration has “outlined proposals that will help keep premiums down for the American people.”
“In all cases, patients’ privacy will be protected and any suggestions otherwise are false,” Shields said. “These proposals have not been implemented and we look forward to hearing comments from the American people about these proposals and our work to help make insurance affordable for the American people.”
HHS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight director Steve Larsen says the rumors aren’t true.
“In a recently released proposed rule, CMS [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services] laid out several general options for collecting information to support risk adjustment, including an intermediate model in which States would collect information such as claims that are currently used for payment purposes,” Larsen said in a Thursday blog post. “Work has not begun on this project.” (RELATED: WH threatens to veto bill prohibiting abortion funding in Obamacare)
Rehberg, however, isn’t stepping back from asking tough questions. “Is HHS working with a contractor to develop a database?” his letter asked Sebelius. “If so, who is that contractor, and what is the cost? Has HHS or any contractor already moved forward with purchasing claims data to establish a database? If so, from whom did they purchase the data and for what purpose?”
The rumors and Rehberg’s questions relate to a controversial Obamacare rule that freshman Republican Rep. Tim Huelskamp of Kansas first discovered in September, one that would require health insurance companies to provide the government with private patient health information.
That information, Larsen says, will be used to develop a “risk adjustment program” so the new federal health care exchanges can make effective cost analyses.
http://dailycaller.com/2011/10/14/house-subcommittee-chair-is-obama-admin-already-collecting-private-health-information/
“Risk adjustment” and “cost analysis” are buzz phrases for Death Panel and Darwinization of health care.
Under ObamaCare, government claims agents will be appointed to decide whether or not your life is worth saving or if it’s “necessary” to provide treatment. The government will decide which doctor you will have, what kind of treatment will be allocated, and when. Like Canada. Like Britain. Like Germany. You will have no choice. The health care industry is already bracing for the 2014 socialist-driven avalanche by cutting back services, laying off workers, and refusing new Medicare patients.
The collection of private healthcare information means the government is gearing up to select which patients it will treat, and which ones it will not. If you’re terminally ill, kiss your ass goodbye immediately. You’ll be lucky to get medication to ease the pain before you pass away. The “cost effective” bottom line will be brutal, and you won’t have your own health insurance option to help allay the expenses. I look forward to seeing the spread of black market doctors and drugs. Those who can actually afford to avoid the yolk of ObamaCare, will. And who can blame them?
For you morons who wanted ObamaCare, welcome to health care rationing.