/PRNewswire/ -- The Senate's newly released health-reform bill ("Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act") infringes on Americans' health-insurance choices and medical privacy, says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom (IHF) -- a patients' rights group in Washington, D.C.
The bill would (among many other provisions):
-- Require nearly every legal resident to buy government-sanctioned
health insurance;
-- Increase Medicare payroll taxes on individuals earning over $200,000
per year and couples earning over $250,000 per year (raising $54
billion in taxes over 10 years);
-- Slap a new tax on "Cadillac" health plans (high-cost plans offered by
employers to their employees) -- raising $149 billion in taxes over 10
years (2010-2019); and
-- Finish laying the building blocks for a computerized "Nationwide
Health Information Network" (NHIN) without patients' consent.
Section 937 of the bill, titled "Dissemination and Building Capacity for Research," includes the following provision:
''(f) BUILDING DATA FOR RESEARCH.--The Secretary [of Health and Human Services] shall provide for the coordination of relevant Federal health programs to build data capacity for comparative clinical effectiveness research, including the development and use of clinical registries and health outcomes research data networks, in order to develop and maintain a comprehensive, interoperable data network to collect, link, and analyze data on outcomes and effectiveness from multiple sources, including electronic health records." [Emphasis added.] (See pages 1683-684 of the bill.)
Dissemination of the collected data will be governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) privacy rule, which actually permits patients' personal health information to be shared among more than 600,000 organizations without patients' consent. "Combining a mandatory national electronic medical-records data network with the so-called HIPAA privacy rule means patients will lose control over the flow of their personal health information," says Robin Kaigh, an attorney and medical-privacy advocate. "The only way to ensure that patients control their personal health data is to make sure patient consent is obtained before data can be shared."
IHF points out that Dr. Bernadine Healy, former head of the National Institutes of Health, recently stressed in U.S. News & World Report:
"...[T]he doctor-patient relationship was never meant to be other than confidential and privileged and solely for the benefit of the patient. Patients expect it, or they would not be forthcoming. And doctors take the Hippocratic oath, pledging to hold sacred their patients' secrets. This pledge of confidentiality, however, is now challenged by a world where computers rule and health information falls into many hands. One might well ask whether medical privacy is just too outmoded a concept for today's information-hungry world. We had better decide...."
Do you really wish to have your personal health information become part of a Nationwide Health Information Network without your consent?
IHF is encouraging citizens to call their Senators as soon as possible and tell them to "vote no on a motion to proceed" on Senator Reid's mandatory health-insurance bill, because it infringes on patients' choice and privacy.
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Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts
Friday, November 20, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Final Economic Stimulus Bill Permits Americans' Personal Health Information to Be Sold for Research/ Public Health Purposes WITHOUT Patients' Consent
Final Economic Stimulus Bill Permits Americans' Personal Health Information to Be Sold for Research and Public Health Purposes WITHOUT Patients' Consent
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The final economic stimulus bill permits Americans' personal health information to be exchanged and sold -- without patients' consent -- for research and public-health purposes, warns the Institute for Health Freedom (Washington, DC) and Citizens' Council on Health Care (Saint Paul, MN).
The bill also mandates the plan for each American to have a single electronic health record by 2014, without opt-out or patient consent provisions.
"This bill is very misleading because while it promises to outlaw the selling of data, the exceptions to the rule are huge and allow Americans' personal health data to be exchanged and sold for research and public-health purposes without patients' consent," says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom.
"This is a historical and unbelievable assault on the privacy rights of all Americans. Personal health information should not be exchanged and sold for research and public-health surveillance without patients' consent," stresses Twila Brase, president of Citizens' Council on Health Care. "Patient data belongs to the patient. A pocket full of cash should not undo a patient's right to protect their medical privacy."
Blevins adds, "Most Americans have no idea that the so-called HIPAA privacy rule doesn't give patients the freedom to give or withhold consent before their personal health information can be shared with others for many purposes. Digitizing people's health records combined with allowing researchers and public-health officials to buy their data from doctors and health plans is going to pave the way for unconsented research on millions of Americans."
These privacy advocates urge all Americans and policymakers to carefully examine the Final Conference Report, Part A on the economic stimulus bill, pdf page 296 (p. 11) and pdf pages 391-395 (pp. 106-110).
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/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The final economic stimulus bill permits Americans' personal health information to be exchanged and sold -- without patients' consent -- for research and public-health purposes, warns the Institute for Health Freedom (Washington, DC) and Citizens' Council on Health Care (Saint Paul, MN).
The bill also mandates the plan for each American to have a single electronic health record by 2014, without opt-out or patient consent provisions.
"This bill is very misleading because while it promises to outlaw the selling of data, the exceptions to the rule are huge and allow Americans' personal health data to be exchanged and sold for research and public-health purposes without patients' consent," says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom.
"This is a historical and unbelievable assault on the privacy rights of all Americans. Personal health information should not be exchanged and sold for research and public-health surveillance without patients' consent," stresses Twila Brase, president of Citizens' Council on Health Care. "Patient data belongs to the patient. A pocket full of cash should not undo a patient's right to protect their medical privacy."
Blevins adds, "Most Americans have no idea that the so-called HIPAA privacy rule doesn't give patients the freedom to give or withhold consent before their personal health information can be shared with others for many purposes. Digitizing people's health records combined with allowing researchers and public-health officials to buy their data from doctors and health plans is going to pave the way for unconsented research on millions of Americans."
These privacy advocates urge all Americans and policymakers to carefully examine the Final Conference Report, Part A on the economic stimulus bill, pdf page 296 (p. 11) and pdf pages 391-395 (pp. 106-110).
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
Coalition for a Democratic Workplace Calls on 111th Congress to Oppose Anti-Worker Employee Free Choice Act
/PRNewswire/ -- The 500-member Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) today (January 7) released a letter it delivered to every member of the 111th Congress. In the letter, CDW urged members of the Senate and House "to oppose all efforts to pass any provision included in the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA H.R. 800/S. 1041 in the 110th Congress)."
"We wanted to take the opportunity to remind members of Congress of the overwhelming opposition from the business community, their constituents and union households to this anti-worker legislation," said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. "This bill is a job-killer and fundamentally undemocratic."
The letter also stated:
"This legislation poses not only an assault on an individual's
right to privacy, but a direct threat to economic growth and job
creation. Particularly at a time of economic uncertainty, Congress
should not enact measures that threaten our economic
competitiveness, including the Employee Free Choice Act.
Furthermore, this legislation would have a particularly
devastating impact on small employers who are the primary source
for new jobs in our economy."
President-elect Obama's Administration and the new Congress will face its first true test early next year in the form of the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act -- that allows unionization without secret ballots for workers. This Act, more aptly titled the Employee "Forced" Choice Act, is nothing short of a full-frontal assault on American democracy and worker privacy. Backed by union special interests and their Congressional allies, the anti-worker bill would effectively strip employees of the right to vote in private when deciding whether or not to join a union.
"It's ironic that members of Congress, all of whom were just elected by secret ballot, would even consider legislation that would remove that right for millions of American workers," added Worth.
CDW survey data indicates that support for maintaining private ballots in union organizing cuts across party lines. By a significant majority, Democrats, Republicans and Independents support maintaining a worker's right to cast their vote in private. Even among union households, a significant majority (69%) oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. And 76% of union voters say having a federally supervised secret ballot election is the best way to protect workers' rights when organizing a union.
-----
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"We wanted to take the opportunity to remind members of Congress of the overwhelming opposition from the business community, their constituents and union households to this anti-worker legislation," said Brian Worth with the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace. "This bill is a job-killer and fundamentally undemocratic."
The letter also stated:
"This legislation poses not only an assault on an individual's
right to privacy, but a direct threat to economic growth and job
creation. Particularly at a time of economic uncertainty, Congress
should not enact measures that threaten our economic
competitiveness, including the Employee Free Choice Act.
Furthermore, this legislation would have a particularly
devastating impact on small employers who are the primary source
for new jobs in our economy."
President-elect Obama's Administration and the new Congress will face its first true test early next year in the form of the anti-worker Employee Free Choice Act -- that allows unionization without secret ballots for workers. This Act, more aptly titled the Employee "Forced" Choice Act, is nothing short of a full-frontal assault on American democracy and worker privacy. Backed by union special interests and their Congressional allies, the anti-worker bill would effectively strip employees of the right to vote in private when deciding whether or not to join a union.
"It's ironic that members of Congress, all of whom were just elected by secret ballot, would even consider legislation that would remove that right for millions of American workers," added Worth.
CDW survey data indicates that support for maintaining private ballots in union organizing cuts across party lines. By a significant majority, Democrats, Republicans and Independents support maintaining a worker's right to cast their vote in private. Even among union households, a significant majority (69%) oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. And 76% of union voters say having a federally supervised secret ballot election is the best way to protect workers' rights when organizing a union.
-----
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Fayetteville, Peachtree City, Tyrone
www.georgiafrontpage.com
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