Did you know that your BMI will be included in your MANDATORY electronic health record?

Here is your link.

You mean you didn't know that you have a mandatory electronic health record? You may not now but you will. Among other information it will include your body mass index.

From the article:

The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.”

Well, isn't that special?

Part of me sees the absolute need for this. When everyone pays for everyone's health care (actually, people with jobs will pay for everyone's health care) then everyone's lifestyle and health is everyone's business.

Maybe this data could be used to determine the kind of health care you will get when you are ill. Should a person who has been grossly obese and smoked for 30 years be as high on the list for a heart transplant as a normal sized person who doesn't smoke?

In case you haven't figured it out I don't actually think the government should be allowed to collect this kind of data. I'm just playing Hussein's advocate, so to speak. When the nation is accelerating towards bankruptcy then we may have to take measures like that to try and push out the date that we have to pay the Piper.

Back to the article:

The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national exchange.

I just love that part about "with appropriate security measures". LOLBIDWTSSATMHO (that is Laughing Out Loud Because I Don't Want To Start Screaming And Tearing My Hair Out). APPROPRIATE SECURITY MEASURES!? Sort of like the security we had surrounding nuclear weapons technology? Like the "security" at commercial airports?

Does anyone believe the government can secure this information?

Even when (NOT if) the data is compromised nobody in the government will be held responsible for the damage, but that breech of security will be used to justify another expansion of the power and size of the federal government.

Here is an interesting link from this article.

Another bit from the article:

The new regulations are one of the first steps towards the government’s goal of universal adoption of electronic health records (EHRs) by 2014, as outlined in the 2009 economic stimulus law.

New regulations. New regulations. Everywhere I look I see new regulations. Give it a rest for a while.

According to the CDC, “BMI provides a reliable indicator of body fatness for most people and is used to screen for weight categories that may lead to health problems.”

This is a picture of the US Surgeon General Regina Benjimin. She looks like she needs to be screened for these kinds of health problems.



Another "benefit" of these electronic records is that the government will already have a huge and detailed database for the mandatory national ID card. Doesn't that make you feel secure?