Commentary by Betsy McCaughey

Ruin Your Health With the Obama Stimulus Plan

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama’s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

Read the rest…

I had a discussion with a friend about it not too long ago as she was moving through questions of “How much is too much”, and “When is it not enough”? I participated in a TweetChat last night with other techies, coaches and social media mavens about this topic. Then when I began reading my e-mail this morning, I ran across something Robert Scoble had to say on Scoblizer about disclosing health illnesses and conditions online and read the ensuing comments.

Your healthcare privacy is dying and why you’ll kill it

Two days ago I told my friends on friendfeed that I had a rare kidney disease and that I could no longer eat red meat or drink Diet Coke or Pepsi, among other dietary changes. Don’t worry, my dad has the same disease and he’s still doing fine, and the doctors have run a crapload of tests and found that I’m otherwise healthy.

But look what happened. 200+ comments.

That prompted me to write another friendfeed item saying that health privacy is dead. I gave a ton of reasons and lots of other people jumped in and either agreed or argued with me.

So, how about you? Why don’t you join in on these two threads, or leave a comment here, about why or why not you will share your medical condition with the public.

The comments varied from people wanting to pursue a real discussion to people arguing with Robert about right and wrong.

It seemed appropriate to share it here because after all, we as people who live with disabling and chronic conditions daily are always having to balance those same questions: “How much is too much”, and “When is it not enough”? These questions exist whether we are self-employed or job hunting, or making new friends and now our comments are logged online if we participate in social networking such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

For me, it’s a matter of personal choice. I disclose that information when I feel it’s appropriate. I make no secret that I live a disability, I’ve written about it here, on my own blog and I’ve shared the whole story of how I came to live a disability online. I am open about it when people I don’t know well ask but there are times when it’s in my best interests not to go into detail.

Like Heidi, a commenter on Scoblizer, there are times when it’s my best interests to claim ignorance and just omit that I know as much as I do. Sometimes this means doing something their way, without jepordizing my health of course,  before I can show them doing it another way might be a better route.

There are just as many reasons why one should disclose disabilities and chronic conditions as there are not to disclose.

So, what about you? Where do weigh in on this topic? Do you make it public or are you more choosy?  Share your opinion with us!