From TV News Lies:
Final Economic Stimulus Bill Permits Americans’ Personal Health Information to Be Sold for Research and Public Health Purposes WITHOUT Patients’ Consent
“The final economic stimulus bill permits Americans’ personal health information to be exchanged and sold — without patients’ consent — for research and public-health purposes, warns the Institute for Health Freedom (Washington, DC) and Citizens’ Council on Health Care (Saint Paul, MN).
The bill also mandates the plan for each American to have a single electronic health record by 2014, without opt-out or patient consent provisions.
“This bill is very misleading because while it promises to outlaw the selling of data, the exceptions to the rule are huge and allow Americans’ personal health data to be exchanged and sold for research and public-health purposes without patients’ consent,” says Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom.”
(snip)
“Blevins adds, “Most Americans have no idea that the so-called HIPAA privacy rule doesn’t give patients the freedom to give or withhold consent before their personal health information can be shared with others for many purposes. Digitizing people’s health records combined with allowing researchers and public-health officials to buy their data from doctors and health plans is going to pave the way for unconsented research on millions of Americans.”"
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The more I read about this stimulus bill the less I like it. Mind you I didn’t like the idea the first time we threw money onto the fire so it’s not surprising I’m still leary.
And for more fun reading check this out-
From World Sociatlist Web Site:
With US infrastructure in tatters, stimulus plan offers paltry sum
“The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) released its 2009 Report Card on the state of infrastructure in the US late last month. The report is a stinging indictment of the state of the nation’s infrastructure, assigning it an overall grade of “D”.
The report card evaluates the categories of Aviation, Bridges, Dams, Drinking Water, Energy, Hazardous Waste, Solid Waste, Inland Waterways and Levees, Public Parks and Recreation, Roads, Railroads, Schools, Mass Transit and Wastewater.
The ASCE estimates that it would take an investment of $2.2 trillion over the next five years to update the nation’s infrastructure. By the most generous calculations, the funds allocated in the final version of the Obama stimulus package would provide less than 5 percent of what is required.”
Posted by Vixen as News at 10:44 PM CST