Page 58 of Health Care Bill: National ID Health Card

And moreover, if you don't want your information recorded on a centralized computer, then:

• Don't get credit (your information goes to the credit bureaus);
• Don't take your car to Sears, Midas Muffler or Firestone, because they keep national information systems on what has been done to your car, how much it cost and how much you still owe;
• Don't apply for college, because you have to put your academic data and financial data on three or four national systems just to be admitted to college.
• Don't apply for a job, because your prospective employer is going to Google your name and find every public mention of you in a public record or published newspaper newspapers were digitized;
• Don't register to vote or respond to the National Census Bureau, because your name becomes part of a public "street list" that shows the names and ages of everyone living in your home, and may even identify you by party affiliation, as well as provide information on the elections in which you did and did not vote.
  
• Don't ride in an airplane or buy a bus ticket, because they often keep permanent records of passengers names and ID.
• And don't get a Social Security card, because your name goes in a national database that identifies you by name and number.
• And don't get a driver's license, because your every driving infraction is digitized and saved;
• And don't have pizza delivered to your home, because pizzerias enter your information into their databases, caller ID tells them who you are, and they know what kind of pizza you want before you ask for it, and they know where you want it delivered and the form of payment you usually use.

In other words, forget about privacy that comes from avoiding digital databases.  That toothpaste has been out of the tube for decades.  The only question is whether we're as willing to use digitalized information to maintain our health as we are willing to use it to maintain the mufflers and brake shoes in our cars, and our voting privileges.  I think staying healthy and rapid access to medical information in an emegency is at least as important as all f the other reasons we allow our information to be digitized and readily accessible.

I love it! "Forget about privacy that comes from avoiding digital databases"...

[/start sarcasm]Yeah, no one has the right to preferences of their privacy (especially in America, huh!), even if it is only specific preferences when it comes to healthcare records [/end sarcasm] I'm actually all for having my records digitized for better service, lower costs, etc. What I'm not for is forcing my fellow countrymen to do the same, as it's a right of privacy.

Is it 451 degrees out here yet, or should I start burning the books myself?

There are PLENTY of ways to go about making healthcare better for us all, and a complete government lockdown and stranglehold of it is not the answer. Free market hasn't been allowed to run in current healthcare options (due to healthcare insurance lobbyists AND government intervention against free market practices), and if it was allowed then many of the problems we would be having wouldn't be. In fact, many politicians (both Republican and Democrat) have voted down legislation that would ease healthcare costs in many ways the current proposed legislation lists WITHOUT the integration of government control on the free market. That leaves one excuse for the current legislation, which is to grab power.

"enable the real-time (or near real-time) determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the point of service..."

HHMMMmm...how is that determined? Bank account access?

I don't give a hoot if Sears keeps track of oil changes (although we have a 1984 truck and do all that ourselves) or if the grocery keeps track of my purchases so they can send me coupons, what I do have a problem with is personal info (health,bank business) on a card. They wanted to do something like this with a national ID card after 9/11 and I wasn't for that either.

The only thing I have on the above list is a social security card and I don't like the idea of that either. I have nothing to hide, but that is the whole point, stop putting your numbers and trackers on me and snooping. We try to fly under the radar because we believe people should leave each other the hell alone. We do not order pizza,take our truck to be serviced,I do not drive although the old man does,we do not travel, we pay cash for what we can afford, know a trade so never needed college, do not, and will not ,vote until there is someone worth voting for (yea Ron Paul!) do not participate in the census (boo Acorn and the ones who will hire them to be census takers) . I believe in small goverment, VERY small. Seems just about every program they are in charge of is rife with fraud, greed and screws the public.

I will decide who I let in my front door, my life and my caboose.

Drivers license doesn't require proof of ability to pay registration.  Riding a bus doesn't require ID.  Sears keeping a record of your oil changes is hardly a privacy issue (they don't have access to your checking account) and not to be too obvious about this but you have a choice to do business with the type of companies that conduct themselves the way you see fit.  Be it pizzerias and mechanics that don't keep track of your info or ones that do.  Also, i might be dating myself here but since when does applying for college require submitting information to a national database?  Don't forget that if you don't want to participate in healthcare, well you'll get hit with a tax that's the same rate(but govt. isn't forcing anyone, it's not single payer).  

Once again, since when has France and Brazil been the example for the rest of the world when it comes to health care?  Great places to visit, but I would much prefer my options here in the U.S.  Last time I had to get treated in an emergency room, (for real) no one was asking me for my insurance card, pre-payment, check book, or checking account number. I got the care I needed, immediately.

Francislholland wrote: "...determining an individual's financial responsibility - is strictly prohibited by law in Brazil, where Government health workers at Government clinics and hospitals are forbidden from asking for payment for services provided"

Since when did a "law" prevent people from asking for an "illegal payment" or prevent them from looking at anyones private records.  I don't want any minions in any doctor's office or clinic able to call up my financial records, those of my wife and my children.  I have enough trouble keeping my private information private, now, without having a million plus additional bureacrats and government health care workers in cubicles able to access my life story.