New HIPAA Review

This is the first page of the "NEW" HIPAA form due to Obamacare from my eye doctor:

I included only page 1 because the rest of the document was rather innocuous.  Clearly, the most disturbing part is section entitled:

"OTHER DISCLOSURES AND USES WE MAY MAKE WITHOUT YOUR AUTHORIZATION OR CONSENT"

I've highlighted the reasons that to me are most offensive.  In order of disturbing they are as follows:

 1.     "uses or disclosures for specialized government functions, such as for the protection of the president or high ranking government officials; for lawful national intelligence activities;  for military purposes; for the evaluation and health of the foreign service;"

• Why would my eye records be subject to uses or disclosures for the protection of the president?
• What is a high ranking government official (i.e., Congressman, Senator, Cabinet Member,  Assemblymen, Mayor, School Board member?)
• What exactly is a "lawful national intelligence activity"?
• Military purposes?  Really, does my having reoccurring chalazion effect the outcome of a war somewhere?
• Foreign service?  Hmmmm....  Just plain weird addition to the list.  Maube just covering their bases?

2.      "incidental disclosures that are an unavoidable by-product of of permitted uses or disclosures;"

• This seems overly broad.  Does this mean that if a 'courier' shows up claiming to the from "the government" and this 'courier' takes a peek at my records it's permitted as incidental & unavoidable?

3.      "disclosures to "business associates" and their subcontractors who perform health care operations for us and who commit to respect the privacy of your health information in accordance with HIPAA;" 

• Why is "business associates" in quotes?  Is this supposed to be like "You know "business associates" with a wink & a nod?  
• Subcontractors?  Why isn't it quotes too?

4.      "for audits by Medicare or Medicaid; or for investigation of possible violations of health care laws;"

• Since I use neither Medicare or Medicaid, why do they need access to my records?

5.      "disclosures for judicial and administrative proceedings, such as in response to subpoenas or orders of courts or administrative agencies;"

• I guess this means that anyone with a court order can get access to my records without my consent.  
• Does this mean even if I am not involved?
• I get subpoenas & court orders for judicial proceedings, but what exactly is an administrative proceeding?  
• Can any administrative agency have access to my record?  The IRS?  The local Health Department?  How about the County Board of Commissioners?   Local Board of Elections?  

6.  "uses or disclosures for health related research;"

• Does this mean by colleges?  Can a masters student at a local community college who may be conducting research for the CDC view my records?

7.    "[specify other uses and disclosures affect by state law]"  

• None was specified, but I don't know if this is intended as a catch all for any other reason.  It seems very broad..... 

Admittedly, some of this may have already been in place.  I don't have a copy of the old HIPAA form, so I can't say that all of these were added by Obamacare.  Regardless of what administration created them, they seem to allow legal access to my eye records by virtually any person associated with any government agency or their sub-contractors.  This is very BIG BROTHER.

Is this a plan?

Let's think about this issue logically.

#1: Desire for Single Payer Universal Healthcare Plan:

But, how can you get there....?

 #2: "You don't want to let a good crisis go to waste....."





So let's review:

                       Single Payer Universal Healthcare 
                   + "Never want to let a good crisis go to waste"
                       Purposefully Created Crisis?

Or maybe it's easier to think of it like this:

                     "Never want to let a good crisis go to waste"
                   + Purposefully Created Crisis                                                
                      Single Payer Universal Healthcare

I'm just sayin'....

Really, might it not be helpful to create a crisis?  

So what to do about this?  Well, an election is coming up next year in which it is possible to take control of the U.S. Senate and reinforce control of the U.S. House of Representatives.  At that point, they could greatly curtail the further implementation of Obamacare through various procedural & budgetary methods effectively neutering the law until a GOP President can be elected in 2016.  

With both houses of the US Legislature and the Presidency the GOP could then undo Obamacare and implement free market based solutions.

The solutions are actually quite simple:

1. Allow selling of health (and all) insurance across state lines.

2. Eliminate the "minimum coverage" requirements imposed by Obamacare allowing people 
    to pick & choose what coverage they want.  (i.e., 57 year men should not be required to 
    cover maternity or fertility insurance.)

3. Reinstitute Health Savings Accounts where you can receive tax deductions for putting 
    money into HSA's to cover healthcare costs in the future.  

• These should be available for   every person from birth, so parents could fund accounts for healthcare use later in life.
• Proof of maxing out HSA's would reduce payments for Medicare withholdings.

4.  Means test Medicare.  Those people who have been responsibly setting aside money for 
     their care should receive less benefits, especially if they've contributed less to Medicare.

• These last two (#3 & #4) effectively allow people to "opt out" of Medicare.

5. Take away a business tax deduction for healthcare insurance expenses and give that tax 
    deduction to the individual.  

• This effectively makes every person a healthcare insurance consumer.  Imagine what would happen to insurance prices when insurance companies  could sell across state lines (increasing consumer choice) to a market that is immediately many times larger (individuals vs companies).

6. Tort reform limiting liability for medical malpractice.

• This would reduce the malpractice insurance of doctors and therefor their costs which would reduce costs overall.  It is after all called "practicing" medicine for a reason. While there are egregious cases were patients and their families need monetary  compensation, there need to be some realistic caps.

7. Expand Medicaid as a safety net for those in true poverty.  

There are, of course, more things that would help.  But, ultimately making the purchase of healthcare insurance and the decision of how much insurance they want to purchase, the responsibility of the individual you are restoring their liberty. 

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.  - This was used as a motto on the title page of An Historical Review of the Constitution and Government of Pennsylvania. (1759); the book was published by Franklin; its author was Richard Jackson.