Sinister Triumvirate: Stimulus, Health Reform, PASS ID…You’re Dead

Howard W. Houchen

Connecting the new health care bill to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and the liberals’ PASS ID legislation shows a long term plan by the Left to manage your access to medical treatment and provides government with the tools necessary to control virtually every aspect of your life.

Remember that stimulus bill back in February, the $850 BILLION plus one… the one that was URGENT, URGENT, and more URGENT that would rapidly create millions of jobs and jump start the economy? The one that not a single Republican supported or cast an AYE vote for in the House due to the fact that no one read the bill before voting for it? The one that contained all kinds of programs that had nothing to do with economic improvements?

The Democrats, including the so-called Blue-Dogs, got behind the plan anyway and pushed it through (again, without reading it), committing present and future generations to pay for the pork-laden almost trillion dollar bill. Oklahoma Congressman Dan Boren, rather infamously now, said when attempting to justify his yes vote to newspapers, “I would rather err on the side of doing something.” But what did his, and the other liberal-Democrats, cavalier “shrug of the shoulders” justification for voting for this devastation of the American economy actually do that could kill us?

Contained within that bill was a provision that fostered the creation of a new government bureaucracy, called the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, which was exposed by Betsy McCaughey in an article on Bloomberg. Democrats scurried to say they did not want to interfere in patient care by putting a bureaucrat in between us and our doctors; they simply were creating ‘efficiencies’ by gathering everyone’s medical records into a central location. However, the bill created this group to work hand-in-hand with the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology to centralize everyone’s medical records, and have the Health and Human Services Secretary empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” according to her article. In other words, bureaucrats would set treatment protocols and determine what treatments are “appropriate and cost effective” for doctors to provide their patients.

Now, let us fast forward to the current “Health Care Reform” bill being pushed by the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Bunch. We are bombarded by the now all too constant mantra from the liberal-democrats and the White House: “Like your insurance, you can keep it, like your doctor, you can keep them”…but, keep this in mind; this current Health Care Bill clearly follows, and is dedicated to, the framework that was set in motion by the stimulus bill to centralize the treatment decision making process in Washington, for bureaucrats to determine what specific treatments those insurance providers and doctors will be allowed to provide for you. One perfect example would be the reduction of timely, life-saving, access to transport in rural areas. Due to financing redistribution of health care based on census oriented care and treatment, the sparsely populated areas of our country will not have the same “golden-hour” access to trauma centers that save countless lives each and every day. American citizens, who would have previously lived, will now die.

The framework for the collection, dissection and dissemination of your personal health data has already been laid in place by the egregious Stimulus Bill (again, that no one read) – wholly owned by and foisted upon the American people by Democrats. What we get as American citizens, as a result of combining the excretions of the “stimulus bill” and those sought in the Health Care Reform bill, is a Health Care system partially dedicated to rationing health care. Simply put, Americans will be subject to the denial of care for patients who are in need of care. American citizens, who would have previously lived, will now die.

The last “piece of the pie” to consider, though not directly related to the stimulus bill, is the already introduced (S. 1261) PASS ID Act. Contained in this bill is even more privacy robbing directives, as if the two aforementioned bills do not go far enough in this respect. The best summation of what PASS ID will achieve, if allowed to pass is: The federal government will mandate that certain criteria and information, specifically biometric information (fingerprints and digital facial recognition friendly photos), be contained on state issued drivers licenses. PASS ID would actually enroll every American possessing this national identification card into a single Global Biometric Identification System. Quite simply, the U.S. federal government would be capable of and in the business of collecting, maintaining, and disseminating information on American citizens to international agencies. The freedoms fought for and secured by our founders and subsequent generations will die.

If you want to have any control left regarding your own health care decisions and do not desire government prodding into, having instant “at the touch of a button” access, and knowing every detail of your personal life. If you are against government collecting personal information concerning job history, activities, donations, complete financial history, medical procedures and every facet of your being, it is time to speak out and throw out in 2010 every single one of those that supported the stimulus and set this outrageous removal of personal freedom and choices from the American people in motion. If not, the greatest, most charitable island of freedom and hope in the history of man will die. We, the people are America!