Medical Database? September 1, 1998 One of the features of Hillary Clinton's national health care plan was a federal database of every American's medical records. During his state of the union address, President Clinton waved a card with a "unique identifier number" that would give government bureaucrats and health care providers easy computer access to everyone's medical history. Although the American people rejected that plan back in 1993 and 1994, the government is still moving ahead with a plan to give every American an "unique identifier number" and to compile medical records into a federal database. Five years ago the argument for a medical card and number linked to a federal database was to aid in health care planning and to eliminate fraud by health care providers. The American people, however, feared it would end medical privacy and increase federal control over health care. The Department of Health and Human Services is moving ahead with a plan to give every American a medical ID number based on an obscure provision in the 1996 Kennedy-Kassebaum law. Currently the department is developing standards for a "unique health care identifier" for each individual as well as employer, provider, and health plan. The Clinton administration has also set up a federal Immunization Registry that will tag all children at birth and track them until death. Currently there are bills in Congress to stop the government from collecting and storing medical records. Such information in the hands of governmental bureaucrats represents a significant threat to individual privacy and places awesome power for control and manipulation of the health care delivery system in this country. Congress needs to stop this intrusion into our lives. The American people rejected this plan five years ago, and they should reject it again now. I'm Kerby Anderson of Probe Ministries, and that's my opinion.