By Diana Furchtgott-Roth
“Buried in the 1,017 pages of the House Democrats’ health-care bill is a little-noticed provision that for the first time could give the government access to the checking or credit-card information of every American. Under section 163, which is entitled ‘Administrative Simplification,’ the bill sets new ‘standards’ for electronic transactions between individuals and their health-care providers.
According to section 163, the standards will ‘enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service . . .’ In addition, they will ‘enable electronic funds transfers, in order to allow automated reconciliation with related health care payment and remittance advice.'”
(from nationalreview.com)
A friend of mine who describes himself as liberal and pacifist put it this way: I support the interpretation that Roe v Wade guarantees certain privacy rights; how can you oppose gov’t intrusion into fertility, but support it for every other health decision.