[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3559-3560]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    RIGHT OF PRIVACY WILL BE STOLEN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we are told that we must immediately 
pass this government takeover of health care or there will be health 
care panic in the streets. Now, we know the real reason this bill is 
being rushed to passage, even though no one has had time to read it. 
According to the Speaker, as quoted, ``We have to pass this bill so 
that you can find out what is in it.'' Let me repeat what the Speaker 
said: ``We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in 
it.''
  After all, it's 2,700 pages long, and it's just too long to find out 
what's in it before we vote on it. So now we know, it has to be voted 
on so it can be read. I guess if Members read the whole bill before 
they voted, they might actually vote it down.
  But there's one thing that we do know that's in this bill, and it is 
that it steals the right of privacy for all Americans. It will invade 
people's legal right to medical privacy. The government gets control 
over everybody's health care information, and it's another reason why 
we should oppose the bill. The government has no business sticking its 
nose into people's medical records. It's none of the government's 
business. The bill creates a health care integrity data bank where the 
Feds have access to everybody's medical records. Health care 
information is supposed to be between the patient and the doctor, not 
the patient and some yet unnamed, anonymous, unaccountable Federal 
bureaucrat hiding somewhere in this building.
  When the government has everybody's medical records, they are at risk 
for misuse. Giving government bureaucrats' access to people's most 
private and intimate health information means their health records 
become

[[Page 3560]]

public property. People's most intimate private health care 
information, warts and all, becomes the property of the U.S. 
Government. The Federal Government grab of health care will eliminate 
any masquerade of medical privacy.
  The 111 new Federal agencies in this bill, that we have yet to read, 
will be snooping through your records. Talk to your doctor, and the 
government will know what you said. You've got some type of illness or 
disease, well, the government's going to know about it. Feeling a bit 
depressed after a family death and need some medication? Well, the 
government will even know your mental health issues. Now, is this the 
kind of information that should be in the hands of Federal bureaucrats, 
a bunch of busybody bureaucrats bestowed with the task to go forth and 
do good to the people?
  The famous author C.S. Lewis once said, ``Of all the tyrannies, a 
tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most 
oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under 
omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber barons' cruelty may sometimes 
sleep, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us 
without end.''

                              {time}  1815

  See, don't worry, the bureaucrats will boast. It's for your own good 
that we know this information. It won't hurt too much.
  Once medical records are available to the Feds, every government 
agency will want to get their hands on those private medical records. 
That's just the way those bureaucrats work. And every American will be 
required to be a part of the Big Brother health care database.
  People won't talk to their doctor anymore about their problems. 
They'll know somewhere in the deep, dark, dank dungeons of Washington, 
D.C., a Federal bureaucrat will be reading and perusing their medical 
records.
  This is an invasion of privacy, and it violates the U.S. 
Constitution. The whole scheme denies individual liberty when the 
government takes over health care.
  Thomas Jefferson even talked about universal health care once. He 
said: If the people let government decide what foods they eat and what 
medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as 
are the souls of those who live under tyranny.
  When government takes over health care, it will equalize poor health 
for everybody. The government takeover of health care is not about 
health and it's sure not about care. It's about government control of 
our personal lives. And this legislation violates our U.S. Constitution 
because it steals the right of privacy right from underneath us, all in 
the name of taking care of us.
  And that's just the way it is.

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