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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tonto who wrote (114667)	10/5/2011 8:43:39 AM
From: Hope Praytochange	3 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224749

Obamacare will put patients' records at risk Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wasn't kidding a few years ago when she said Congress had to pass Obamacare so the rest of the country could discover what was in it. Ever since then a steady stream of bad news has emerged as people pored over the 2,700 pages of Obamacare legalese. Just last week Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan., found a new shocker that ought to be especially worrisome to anybody who cares about protecting the privacy of their medical records. As part of its implementation of Obamacare, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a new federal regulation to require private health insurance companies to give the government all of the health records of every person they insure. The rule is shrouded in the usual bureaucratese, but, as Huelskamp pointed out in a Washington Examiner op-ed, "abstract terms are used to distract from the real objectives of this idea: no matter which 'option' is chosen, government bureaucrats would have access to the health records of every American -- including you." HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius claims the government must have the records in order to evaluate the performance of health insurers. Aside from the absurdity of having federal health bureaucrats judge the job performance of anybody else, the proposal raises a gigantic red flag: Federal and state governments have proven repeatedly in recent years that they are all but incapable of fully protecting sensitive records of individuals. Remember this headline, "Personal info of 26.5 million veterans lost?" It happened in 2006 when a federal data analyst took a computer disc home containing the Social Security numbers of the veterans. It was lost when the bureaucrat's home was burglarized. Or how about the incident in 2007 when a disk containing the Medicaid records for 2.9 million Georgians disappeared? In 2009, it was Medicaid claims data for 68,000 Californians. Last year, the Medicaid records of more than 280,000 Pennsylvanians were compromised when a couple of flash drives went missing. No matter how strenuously and often President Obama and Sebelius promise things will be different when the Washington bureaucracy gets its hands on your health records, it's impossible to think there won't be similar episodes in the future. The difference will be the magnitude of people affected and the inability of the victims to do anything about it. As Huelskamp observed, "What happens to the federal government if it loses a laptop full of patient data or business information? What recourse do individual citizens have against an inept bureaucrat who leaves the computer unlocked? Imagine a WikiLeaks-size disclosure of every American's health histories. The results could be devastating, embarrassing -- even Orwellian." The Kansas congressman wants Congress to withdraw funding for the proposed regulation. That certainly should be done as soon as possible, but the more important point is this: There would be no need for such incremental defunding actions if Obamacare were no longer on the books. Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2011/10/obamacare-will-put-patients-records-risk#ixzz1ZuUinUDm

To: tonto who wrote (114667)	10/5/2011 12:06:34 PM
From: Paul V.	Respond to of 224749

tonto, They have had a good year this year compared to last, and expect a slight increase for next year, at this time. Their growth is iternationally...they are concerned about the US. I agree with their assessment. What worries me is the trend and erosion of manufacture jobs which have gone to lower wage and fringe benefit countries. Until the wages and fringes of other countries elevate to our US standards why would a corporation want to return to the US where they would have lower profits. Add, the lack of individuals having the appropriate skill sets, were would the corporations find diligent workers to operate the automated machines and robotics.