Posted on 03/23/2013 3:39:28 AM PDT by markomalley
CVS employees, and the rest of America, had better get used to turning over personal health information like their glucose levels and body mass index to their insurers - and to the federal government.
Starting in 2014, per the dictates of the federal government, your doctor must record your body mass index (BMI), which measures whether you are overweight, each time he or she treats you and turn it over to the government via your electronic health record, which every patient is required to have. Your BMI will then be tracked by the Health and Human Services Department, the agency rolling out ObamaCare, and a bevy of other state and federal agencies.
Shock and anger ensued this week as CVS employees learned that if they didn't turn over that information to their insurers, they'd be fined. But CVS is merely rolling out what may become one of the most controversial aspects of ObamaCare a little ahead of schedule.
One needs only to look to Europe to see how our political elites will use ObamaCare, and the BMI weight measure they are so determined to record for each of us, to intrude into and regulate not just our health care, but our lives.
In the U.K., overweight patients or those who smoke are branded "undeserving" and denied treatments like cataract surgery (without which they could eventually go blind) and knee and hip surgery, leaving some who don't qualify for the surgery in agonizing pain. Some of the U.K.'s "trusts," which regulate the national health care system for various zones of the country, go farther, denying all operations to those who don't meet the government's weight dictates except for lifesaving surgery on their hearts, brains or to remove cancer.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Where did I say that?
One of the most important unspoken reasons for government healthcare: control of people's activity.
I, too, don't want to "subsidize" the "added medical charges" of people who take unnecessary risks, like bungee-jumping, sky-diving, skiing (Sonny Bono was killed skiing!), or homosexual activity!!! I don't participate in these activities, why should I pay for the consequences that befall others who do?
“Where did I say that?”
That’s why I asked the question.
So everyone on this thread simply wants to pay for their own healthcare without government or third-party payers involved? That would be refreshing, but highly unlikely.
The point is that people want what they want. If everybody gets everything, then nobody gets anything, which is the end result of Obamacare.
Medical care should be between patient and doctor, including payment. Then the system will have a way of righting itself, otherwise we all get what bureaucrats say we get for any arbitrary reason.
Sorry, I should have known that, as an engineer, you like things specified clearly in exact terms.
I totally agree, the government needs to keep its sticky fingers out of the health care business completely.
However, government intervention and control now seems to be a fact of life, and I don’t see that changing any time in the foreseeable future.
I should have stated this explicitly as an underlying premise.
As such, I made my original comment questioning whether the government has any business denying treatment for reasons of lifestyle, and more importantly, over health issues that are unrelated to the nature of the treatment in question.
I believe the government has no business making those decisions, regardless of how the payment actually happens.
My comment was directed to a poster who seemed to be OK with that sort of government involvement. Sadly, it looks like he’s going to get the death panels that he seems to want.
“I believe the government has no business making those decisions, regardless of how the payment actually happens.”
I agree with this, but you and I both know that unless you pay for the service directly at the time, someone is going to tell you what you get.
Most people it seems, even conservatives here, want their stuff. Obamacare, medicare, and all the rest of the government programs have destroyed medicine for everybody in this country. The right answer is to get rid of all of that. But of course that will never happen.
I posed the question that way, not because I’m an engineer, but because I wanted to provoke debate. You ended up much more sensible than I thought based on the comment, but your context explains it.
I wasn’t advocating the particular measure and agree that CVS needs to be educated on its accuracy. The majority of NFL running backs would come in as morbidly obese by that standard. Perhaps waist to hip ratio is a more precise indicator of body fat ?
The real issue at hand is that obesity accounts for more than 20% of our medical spending and raises the risk of a host of chronic medical conditions.
According to me, who works in/for the health insurance industry and has actually read PPACA and gets paid money to help insurers deal/strategize with the shitstormclusterflucknonsense that is PPACA, the Palin death panel fantasy simply does not exist.
IMO, there are 50 other things in PPACA that you should be more concerned about than an SS-like group deciding your ultimate fate.
Rush and Palin have been wrong about many things. I’m sorry if I’m the first to break this to you.
Likewise. I’d be skinny as a rail at 6’4” if my BMI matched what the Government charts say it should be.
they are the elite rulers, they are exempt from the death panels, unless they disobey dear leader 0
My fear is that you will have to be at the “correct” BMI if Obamacare goes into full force. If not health service denied..
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