President, Barack Obama has promised a massive change to “modernize health care by making all health records standardized and electronic.” Part of his ambitious health care program will be the computerizing of medical records of all Americans in order to make the health care process more cost-effective.
But even proponents of Obama's plan have mentioned that ensuring the privacy of patients' records in a nationalized computer network will be tricky. There are obvious concerns about hackers and system failures. And new online health record systems, such as Google Health are not currently subject to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, the national health privacy law.
This is especially true when you consider the advocates of implementing a program using so-called ‘v-chips’ containing all a person's medical information. No one has said how much information will be contained in those implants. DNA? AIDS information?
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With so much information already being compromised within government security systems, how can Obama possibly promise confidentiality of such records?
Although in five years the VeriChip Corp., the US company creating microchip implants, has yet to turn a profit, it has been investing heavily -- up to $8 million a year -- to create new markets.
The company's executives have said their present push is the tagging of "high-risk" patients — diabetics and people with heart conditions or Alzheimer's disease.
In a medical emergency, hospital staff could wave a reader over a patient's arm, get an ID number, and then, via the Internet, enter a company database and pull up the person's identity and medical history.
To doctors, a "starter kit" -- complete with 10 hypodermic syringes, 10 VeriChips and a reader -- costs $1,400, according to information on the Verichip web site. To patients, a microchip implant means a $200, out-of-pocket expense to their physician. Presently, chip implants aren't covered by private healthcare insurance companies, or by Medicare and Medicaid.
For almost two years, the company has been offering hospitals free scanners, but acceptance has been limited. According to the company's most recent SEC quarterly filing, 515 hospitals have pledged to take part in the VeriMed network, yet only 100 have actually been equipped and trained to use the system.
Some patients and their families are wondering why they should abandon noninvasive tags such as MedicAlert, a low-tech bracelet, that warns paramedics if patients have serious allergies or a chronic medical condition, for the microchip implants.
In early September, up to 200 Alzheimer's patients living in the Palm Beach, Florida area were implanted with the microchip by the company VeriChip absolutely free.
The chip, which is about the size of a grain of rice, contains a 16-digit identification number which is scanned at a hospital. Once the number is placed in a database, it can provide crucial medical information. People are already lining up for the VeriChip, but it's already stirred up controversy.
The story, carried by ABC TV News, caused one reporter to ask, "Is Big Brother watching?"
The relative permanence is a big reason why Marc Rotenberg, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, is suspicious about the motives of the company, which charges an annual fee to keep clients' records.
The company charges $20 a year for customers to keep a "one-pager" on its database — a record of blood type, allergies, medications, driver's license data and living-will directives. For $80 a year, it will keep an individual's full medical history. In recent days, there have been rumors on Wall Street, and elsewhere, of the potential uses for RFID in humans: the chipping of U.S. soldiers, of inmates, or of migrant workers, to name a few.
In May 2008, a protest outside the Alzheimer's Community Care Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, drew attention to a two-year study in which 200 Alzheimer's patients, along with their caregivers, were to receive chip implants. Parents, children and elderly people decried the plan, with signs and placards.
"Chipping People Is Wrong" and "People Are Not Pets," the signs read. And: "Stop VeriChip."
Dr. Katherine Albrecht, the RFID critic who organized the demonstration, raises similar concerns on her www.AntiChips.com web site.
"Is it appropriate to use the most vulnerable members of society for invasive medical research? Should the company be allowed to implant microchips into people whose mental impairments means they cannot give fully informed consent?" she wrote.
As the polemic heats up, legislators are increasingly being drawn into the fray. Two states, Wisconsin and North Dakota, recently passed laws prohibiting the forced implantation of microchips in humans. Other states, such as Ohio, Oklahoma, Colorado and Florida, are studying similar legislation.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma legislators are debating a bill that would authorize microchip implants in people imprisoned for violent crimes. Many felt it would be a good way to monitor felons once released from prison.
But other lawmakers raised concerns. Rep. John Wright worried, "Apparently, we're going to permanently put the 'mark' on these people."
Rep. Ed Cannaday found the forced microchipping of inmates "invasive.... We are going down that slippery slope."
Another drawback to microchip implants is the suspicion that they are linked to cancer in test animals. Opponents of human microchipping are concerned with the speed with which these chips received approval from the US Food and Drug Administration. Opponents such as Dr. Albrecht believe the FDA approval has more to do with politics than medicine.
Opponents believe the government is choosing the most vulnerable citizens for the initial implants — Alzheimer's patients, the handicapped, retarded, the elderly — but eventually every human being in the US, Mexico and Canada will be required to have the microchip implants if only to keep track of them and their activities.
"Under the federally supported National Animal Identification System (NAIS), digital tags are expected to be affixed to the U.S.'s 40 million farm animals to enable regulators to track and respond quickly to disease, bioterrorism, and other calamities," according to a Business Week article.
"Opponents have many fears about this plan, among them that it could be the forerunner of a similar system for humans. The theory, circulated in blogs, goes like this: You test it on the animals first, demonstrating the viability of the radio frequency identification devices (RFIDs) to monitor each and every animal's movements and health history from birth to death, and then move on to people."
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. Kouri writes for many police and security magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer and others. He's a news writer for TheConservativeVoice.Com and PHXnews.com. He's also a columnist for AmericanDaily.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com, MichNews.Com, and he's syndicated by AXcessNews.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc.
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Comments
If it's Obama's plan, my guess is both - illegal AND unethical.
Neither I, nor my children or children's children will participate in having a chip implanted in our bodies. PERIOD!! We are human...not machine. Maybe Obama had one implanted...and is controlled by a computer...this actually sounds possible..LOL
And ABC as illegal AND unethical.
'Prescription for America'
ABC news is owed by Disney
So ABC News is
News for Children
I find it interesting that the
President of the United States
Wants to address the
Children on the Disney News Channel
Grow Up Boycott ABC!
I bet this "swine flu"/ H1N1 Flu Pandemic is the precursor to a CRISIS that will encourage everyone to get vaccinated.
And guess what will be in the "vaccine?"
You got it- a V-CHIP.
Mark my words.
I don't want them even having my medical information... nevermind a vchip!!!!!!!!
No way will I have a chip inplanted. We are human, not pets or machines. Who's going to input all of this info on this "tiny chip" Obama elves?????????? Big Brother is everywhere watching everything! Everything you do is monitored, now this and will they keep monitoring once we are dead and buried??
The doctor's can't even keep yur records straight with what they issue as orders or 'scrips, just how will this improve what we now have?
A person’s medical history is not on the chip itself. The chip probably reads back an ID number that accesses that person’s history in a database. Take heed, this may be a precursor to Revelation 13:16 – 18.
Won't be long and every American Citizen will be Goose Stepping!
The mark of the Beast.
I really think people should stop and read their bibles. We all know that the bible is being fulfilled daily and this action that is trying to be taken just proves the truth and how close the end of time is really here upon us. Just remember the "MARK OF THE BEAST" means that you are doomed. So just find the truth out for yourself and "READ YOUR BIBLES". It will answer al your questions and it does not lie!!!!!!!!!!!! All we can do is pray to GOD that this will not take place. Just turn it over to God and he will take care of his people. HAVE FAITH AND WE WILL SURVIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! May God bless the whole world and especially the United States>>>>>
it goes back to what our founding fathers once said " either the government fear the people or the people fear the government". right now we live in a world with alot of fear and the media onlyl exacerbates that. if this chip comes out or if it doesn't i think there are better things to fight, such as getting our freedoms back and getting us back to being decent people who stand up for what they believe and who live and let live. but it has become now almost that we can no longer live like that, we all have to be activists because the world around us is moving so swiftly and ther is so much corruption and greed that it all seems like a big show. keep your eyes open and whenever possible vote for the underdog and take your freedom back!!!
Revelation 13: And it puts under compulsion all persons, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, the free and the slaves, that they should give these a mark in their right hand or upon the forehead that nobody might be able to buy or sell except a person having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name.
Have any of you considered that Obama is the Anti-Christ? It's very possible that he might be. His healthcare is going to require the mark of the wild beast.
IT'S THE MARK OF THE BEAST- IT''S ALREADY BEEN PREDICTED- WE HAVE TO STAND TOGETHER AND REFUSE - IT FITS IN WITH THEIR NEW WORLD ORDER- THEIR PLAN TO DECREASE THE POPULATION AND CONTROL EVERYTHING , AND WHEN WE'RE GONE WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO OUR CHILDREN IF WE ALLOW THIS???
THERE'S LITERAL EVIL IN THE GOVERNMENT , AND THERE ALWAY'S HAS BEEN , BUT THEY'VE GOTTEN TOO POWERFUL BECAUSE OF OR IGNORANCE!!!! WHAT DOES IT MATTER WHAT THE NEWEST CAR CAN DO OR WHAT BRITTANY'S DONE TO HER HEAD , WE NEED TO OPEN OUR EYE'S AND PAY CAREFULL ATTENTION. WE NOW KNOW THAT THE BUSH'S ARE RELATED TO OBAMA AND (COUSINS) , WE ALREADY KNOW THAT THEY'VE LIED ABOUT THE WAR, 911, THE GULF OIL SPILL, THEY WONT ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BILDERBURG GROUP (POWERFUL ELITES, THAT HOLD SECRET MEETINGS) INVOLVING SERIOS WORLD ISSUES. WE KNOW THAT QUITE A FEW OF OUR PRESIDENTS HAVE BEEN OR ARE INVOLVED IN ANOTHER SECRET ORGANIZATION OF THE "ILLUMANATI" ALSO FREE MASONS. THEY'RE BUILDING UNDERGROUND SECRET BUNKERS FOR 2012 OR ONE OF THE OTHER MANY PLANS TO PROTECT THEMSELVES WHILE DECREASING THE POPULATION. THEY HAVE A LITTLE KNOWN MONUMENT CALLED "AMERICA'S STONHENGE" THAT SPEAKS OF KEEPING THE POPULATION BELOW 500,000.000.THE WEB SITE IS radioliberty.com .....ALSO RESEARCH THE THREE DAY'S OF DARKNESS WHICH COULD BE A PREDICTION REALTED TO 2012.
wow.... this is soo sad. i swear to god i will disappear off the face of the earth if these big brother control freaks try to get me.... if they somehow do i will cut the ******* thing out myself.
The doctors already live in fear of the government. Ask your doctor! They are REQUIRED BY LAW to tell you to get the vacines and drugs of Johnson and Johnson and Pfizer. They are required to post all your information on records in preparation to put all these records onto the government database. Cerner Corp is the database company who is running this part of the show. They, and J&J and Pfizer have been making huge campaign donations and J&J employees make up the FDA Advisory Board. THey OWN Washington and they OWN each State government from the Governor down to local Health Departments.
Smoking bans sell Nicoderm for J&J and Chantix for Pfizer. Sugar taxes and bans will sell Splenda and Lap Band surgeries for J&J. Government edicts will sell vacines for J&J.
It is laughable that the "Occupy Movement" is not on the lawns at J&J and their CEO Weldon!
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