January 19, 2016

How Would the Act to Protect the Privacy of Healthcare Decisions Effect Obamacare?

Fundamental to the right to make health care decisions privately, is the right to make them without government interference. If the government mandates a course of action, the decision to take or not take action is no longer the individual’s; it is the government’s.

Because any restrictions placed by the government in what must be offered in the Health Insurance Exchange Plans effectively prohibits people whose only access to insurance is through the exchange from seeking treatments not offered in plans on the exchange, such restrictions effectively deprive patients from exercising a right to make their health care decisions without government interference. Likewise, any mandates that would state patients must have any particular treatment or preventive care would also deprive such people of the right to make health care decisions without government interference.  Offering insurance that allows the patient to make choices to receive or not receive care, not insurance companies or the government, is a requirement for Obamacare plans under this act. Hence, in addition to the restrictions private insurance companies have against dictating care (See post: How Would passage of the Act to Protect the Privacy of Health Care Decisions affect Private Insurance Contracts?) the government could not dictate what types of treatment for any particular medical condition Obamacare plans must cover may be offered.  If Obamacare plans offer coverage for treatment of a condition what treatment the patient chooses is the patient’s decision, not the legislatures.

To reiterate: realistically speaking, people who must buy their insurance through the health care exchanges are extremely unlikely to be able to afford any care that is not covered by the insurance available on the exchanges. Thus, the ability for a patient to seek what they believe would be the best treatment for them is co-opted by the legislature. The legislature is not filled with medical experts. It is filled with people who will do anything for a campaign donation, including restrict access through Obamacare plans for Treatment A because proponents of Treatment B donate more money to their election campaigns than proponents for Treatment A. Medical care and pharmaceuticals is big business, and big business pays legislators so it can be bigger business. Under our current system of “We don’t call it a bribe, we call it a campaign contribution.”, legislators cannot  be relied upon to make any decision with the best interests of their constituents at heart.  So passage of this act is not just in defense of liberty, it is in defense of patients being able to get the care they feel is best for them.  Patients don’t seek and continue care that they believe won’t work and don’t seek care with great risk of harm.  So the likelihood of the care a patient chooses being less expensive than the care mandated by the Legislature is very high. By denying coverage for treatment by spinal manipulation for spinal related conditions, treatment with a 1 in 3.7 million chance of causing harm and paying for surgery instead, which has a 1% chance of death within 30 days, and a 5% chance of death from addiction to pain control pills within 5 years, the legislature has proven they are not competent to make the best health care decision for anyone.  Passage of this Act will not just protect our rights to privacy, it will save lives and reduce suffering.

All Obamacare plans would have to pay for all services by any licensed health care provider for the medical conditions Obamacare covers.