Hello GovernmentCare, Goodbye Personal Privacy

Do you want your government to know that you have bowel troubles? Do you mind if the president can discover if you have erectile disfunction? Would you be out of sorts if your local Congressman could discover if you'd had an abortion? How about if your state comptroller's office or your governor could discover if you'd had breast implants? Well, a vote for Obamacare is a vote to give away your personal, private, maybe embarrassing medical information.

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Do you think this is a silly claim? Well, don't. In the newly released Obamacare plan, section 3102 titled “Financial Integrity” makes provision for state and federal governments to be able to investigate any medical care provider at any time. This provision gives government the right to look at any record that a doctor has in his files and that means your private medical information. Worse, they may do so without court approval, without a warrant, with no cause stated. Patient's United has created a searchable data base of what is in Obama's “Health Care For All Americans” plan, if you'd like to take a look for yourself. But here is the section I described above: (Note, the term “Gateway” as contained in the bill is defined as a doctor or other healthcare provider) Sec. 3102 Financial Integrity

“(1) In general - A State shall keep an accurate accounting of all activities, receipts, and expenditures of any Gateway operating in such State and shall annually submit to the Secretary a report concerning such accountings. “(2) Investigations - The Secretary may investigate the affairs of a Gateway, may examine the properties and records of a Gateway, and may require periodical reports in relation to activities undertaken by a Gateway. A Gateway shall fully cooperate in any investigation conducted under this paragraph.

This is a downright authoritarian clause. Doctors will no longer be free of what is now defined as “illegal search and seizure” because with the passage of this bill **PRESTO-CHANGO** all requirements that government faces to get a warrant and go through the courts to stormtroop through a doctor's office to seize records is magically eliminated. Remember, with government involvement comes government interference and control. So, next time you are with your doctor talking over some delicate medical condition that you would just rather not have everyone else know about, remember that you are telling every last member of the government the same embarrassing information whether you want to or not. Now, when Ed Morrissey first wrote about the above facts, someone took Ed to task for having once agreed with the warrantless wiretapping of foreign terror suspects and posited that the Bush era program and this matter of government snooping into everyone’s medical information at will is pretty much the same thing. But this lefty that chided Morrissey couldn't be more wrong. In the first place a foreign terror suspect is not covered by the Constitution of the United States. In the second place, those wire taps didn't target specific people, but only lighted on buzzwords that raised a red flag for investigation later. On the other hand, these medical records that the government has suddenly decided are its property is specific information about specific people. And specific people that are American citizens on top of it. So, no, the situations are nothing at all similar. In any case, a vote for Obamacare is a vote to give away our privacy to the federal and state government. To me that does not sound like a very good deal.