Health Bill Could Allow Government Direct Access To Your Personal Bank Account

[Gordon Ray Kissinger]

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Health-bill-could-allow-...

Health bill could allow government access to personal financial records
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
August 12, 2009

Privacy concerns are generating another round of complaints about health care legislation being considered in the House.

The bill calls for the secretary of health and human services to be able to quickly determine a person's financial responsibility and eligibility for health care services, "which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card."

The language has been long sought after by some health reform advocates who say it will enable more streamlined and effective medical care, but the words are chilling to privacy advocates who do not want the government tracking their medical history.

"That provision is extremely worrisome," said Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank. "What kind of information would they collect?"

At a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa., residents were wondering the same thing and they demanded answers from Sen. Arlen Specter, a Democrat who recently switched from the GOP and who has not said how he will vote on health care reform when the Senate considers a bill this fall.

"I have spent 35 years in information technology," one woman in the audience said to Specter. "I read this bill very closely. You are about to concentrate more information about more Pennsylvanians and Americans in this bill in one place in the computers of Washington that has ever occurred."

Specter elicited laughs and boos when he responded, "With respect to privacy, we'll do everything we can to stop people from breaking into the files."

The bill does not stipulate clearly whether everyone would have to possess a health identification card, but other language in the House bill and provisions in a committee-passed Senate bill would require some kind of national tracking system, because both bills mandate health insurance coverage for all Americans.

The Senate bill includes a line that would "establish a national health plan identifier system," requiring "every entity providing health insurance" to send to the government the name, address and taxpayer identification number in addition to "such other information as the secretary may prescribe."

Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, a libertarian think tank, said such a system could lead to patients being less honest with their doctors in an effort to protect their medical privacy.

"People are not going to want to share all the details of their health history," Blevins said. "The best way to describe this provision is the creation of a key to identify the individual and therefore you are able to track the information relating to that person."

Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said the provision in the House bill that calls for an ID card actually goes much further and would allow the government access to a patient's bank account, in order to determine ability to pay.

"What I see as being problematic is that the government can get into your bank account and see how much is in there," Furchtgott-Roth said.


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The healthcare bill is insideous. Those that are pushing it, are evil! They're stealing our liberty.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2308300/posts

The government will have direct access to all bank accounts for electronic funds transfer to pay
Rush Limbaugh .com ^ | 8/04/09 | The Maha

Posted on Tuesday, August 04, 2009 6:46:48 PM by Libloather

RUSH: Now, somebody tell me how in the world anyone could take that out of context. That is a full 43 seconds, no edits, we didn't take sentences out of order and assemble them in a way we wanted. A single payer health care plan, universal health care plan, that's what I'd like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately, because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House. Now they've done that, now they're going for single payer health care. I don't know why they did this. We think of these people as brilliant in the Alinsky sense. All they're doing is calling attention his lies. All they're doing is calling attention to his deceit. All they're doing is causing people to go back and get these full fledged clips and play them all over the place, radio, television. Linda Douglass looks like a sap. Linda Douglass looks like what she is, a propagandist former employee of state-controlled media.


On page 16 of the House bill, it's right there, and you've heard people quote from it. I'm going to summarize it, page 16 : private insurance will become illegal. Insurance companies cannot write new policies, people will lose their existing policy if they change jobs, if they change coverage, or if they change prices. Once any aspect of your private health insurance changes after this bill goes into effect, you can't renew it. You have to go public option. On page 29 of the House bill, it is admitted that our health care will be rationed. On page 42, the health choices commissioner will decide health benefits for you. You will have no choice. Page 58, every person will be issued a national ID health card, and it will probably have that stupid logo that reminds me of World War II, frankly, when you look at it, you'll say the same thing. The federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer to pay. Yes, my friends, the federal government will have direct, real-time access to all individual bank accounts for electronic funds transfer, meaning from your account to them. They will be able to debit your account for health expenses. That's on page 59, go get the bill. I'm summarizing here for you.


On page 72, all private health care plans must conform to government rules to participate in a health care exchange. Any individual who doesn't have acceptable health care defined by the government will be taxed two-and-a-half percent of their income each year. Officers and employees of government health care bureaucracy will have access to all American financial and personal records, page 195. Page 203, the tax imposed under this section shall not be treated as a tax. I'm quoting from the actual bill. I've got numerous examples but I'm way over time here. But, Ms. Douglas, you've been made a sap on this, and you've only caused even more attention to be focused on what your boss actually intends and what is in the House bill. It's there. This campaign of fraud and deceit is exactly why the American people are up in arms, and it's exactly why you and your party are looking at them with deep contempt. This wasn't part of the plan. The American people weren't supposed to figure all this out. They are just supposed to bow down and say, "Thank you for caring about us."

[PHILIP SCHNEIDER]

This national health care abamanation, should by now, have everybody and anybody that cares about the sovereignty, privacy, economic viabiilty, liberty and freedom of our nations people, up in arms! There is no longer any question left to answer as to where the liberal secular progressive democrats and their followers want to take this country. "WE HAVE OUR PROOF", about each and every one of our politicians and their bevy of administrative assistants that they DO want to make changes and the changes are NOT what "We the people" asked for and NOT what "We the people" want.
Our government was designed with a system of checks and balances. The balances were a system of three powers. Where IS that system today? Where are the checks and balances we thought were going to protect our citizens rights? Who or what has become so powerful that it has overcome the power of "We the people"? What IS it that makes us stand silent over the years and turns us into nothing but observers . . . . . silent when we see wrong but take no action. The one power given the citizens that would stop this insanity rests in the hands of "We the people" but we refuse to even raise those hands in the free exercise of our power to vote.
We hardly get one half of our citizens to vote for a national election, we NEVER get one hundred percent of our people to vote.
"Real Conservatives" would do well to choose candidates, who want and get, people to use their power to vote. THAT has to be one of the first priorities of the return to a nation "Of the people, By the people, and For the people. We here can accomplish some of that, we can communicate with our family, friends, and neighbors about the importance of casting their vote whether it be in person or right here on the internet. Let's get about doing just that. It is NOT too early to start. The next election is not far off.