Tell ‘Em Where It Hurts and Then Some

With every expansion of government under the Obama administration, President Obama helps make the case for smaller government. Just in case the NSA didn’t get you too riled up (it’s all in the name of national security – right?), the blob known as Obamacare continues to grow.

The latest from the cryptic Obamacare rules and regulations is that apparently doctors will have to ask you about your sex life. One partner, multiple partners, same-sex partners. Who, what, when, where, and how? Especially, that last one. (No matter what, skip the part about the Cool Whip and the catcher’s mitt.) Oh, and they want to know about past drug use too.

And it isn’t just your primary care physician that will be required to ask these questions and collect the information; it’s any doctor. Your ears, nose and throat doctor, your dermatologist, your podiatrist will all be required to be “in the know.” Heck, I think it even applies to Dr. J, Julius Erving, too.

It used to be your medical history was between you and your doctor. Now your sex life will be between you and all of your doctors and Kathleen Sebelius, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, the Screen Actors Guild, the Radio City Rockettes, Bo, the presidential dog, and that neighbor down the street who’s got that kind of twitch.

This is all part of the electronic records requirements within Obamacare. Any doctors and hospitals that don’t comply with the federal government’s electronic-health-records requirements will not be eligible for incentive payments to start. Yet, beginning in 2015, they’ll also face financial penalties from Medicare and Medicaid.

Earlier this year Health and Human Services announced that any patients who may want to keep information out of their electronic record should simply pay cash. Except, oh wait, they can’t. Obamacare, requires that everyone purchase insurance, remember. Unless, one is willing to pay the fine, er, tax.

Think of it as sort of a cross-check, just in case the NSA missed something.

And if all that isn’t enough, we also have the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB plans on monitoring up to 80% of all credit and debit card transactions. As we recently learned, the Obama administration admits it can’t check applicants’ income when applying for subsidies through the Obamacare state exchanges (it’ll use the honor system), yet the CFPB will track 80% of all credit and debit card transactions? I’m sure we can all find comfort knowing that the CFPB will know our eating habits and our clothing preferences.

You may remember the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was created as part of that Frankenstein of a law commonly referred to as the Dodd-Frank bill. Lest we forget, Dodd-Frank was a reaction to the financial meltdown of 2008. You may also may also recall that the financial meltdown of 2008 was driven in large part by the loosening of lending standards by mortgage lenders – the results of government laws, rules, cajoling, coercing, threatening.

And who were two of the biggest cheerleaders for these lending practices? Why Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, of course. Let me make this analogy, in 1919 eight members of the Chicago White Sox consorted with gamblers to throw the World Series (and were forever known as the Black Sox) against the Cincinnati Reds. Major League owners were not the brightest bunch around (not unlike the Obama foreign policy team). They were, nonetheless, smart enough not to leave it to the eight members of the Black Sox to restore the integrity of the game. Yet, the Democrats in Congress were plenty happy to let the two nitwits Chris Dodd and Barney Frank clean up the mess they helped create. We knew this wasn’t going to go well.

So, medical records, sexual history, buying habits – how long before Vladimir Putin, or anybody else for that matter, has that information too?

To go back to where we started, with the further growth of the already huge federal government by the Obama administration, the case is made for smaller government. It’s not a sure thing yet, be one day we may end up thanking Obama for helping, albeit unintentionally, the conservative, small government cause.

Curtice Mang is the author of the book, The Constitution – I’m Not Kidding and Other Tales of Liberal Folly. He can be contacted at www.mangwrites.com, where one can also purchase his book; or contact Curtice at mangwrites at cox.net.