Obamacare’s Federal Data Hub Will Be Like The NSA Of Healthcare

JULY 22, 2013 1:03 PM 0 COMMENTS VIEWS: 826

This is one of the more disturbing stories we've come across in some time. If you are like us and trust government as about as much as you would trust a common criminal, an army of Obamacare "patient navigators" and what they have access to will make you trust Uncle Sam even less.

Obama wants everyone he can get to sign up for his signature healthcare legislation to make it a success (we use the word "success" lightly) so through Obamacare and the newly created Federal Data Hub, the federal government is creating a collection and repository of personal information unrivaled in American history. The Federal Data Hub will essentially be the NSA of the government run healthcare industry.

Having a collection of all that personal information is disturbing enough, but when you realize who has access to it, it is enough to make your blood boil. It was reported by the Government Accounting Office that these "patient navigators" may be allowed to to assist with outreach and enrollment duties even before they have been properly trained. And here's where the real disturbing part comes in, even though these navigators will have access to reams of personal data such as Social Security numbers, tax returns and medical records, they will not be subject to criminal background checks!

So let's go over that again: An army of untrained or poorly trained Obamacare "patient navigators" will have access to your and your family members Social Security numbers, medical records and IRS tax returns plus who knows what other personal data, they will not be required to have background checks preformed to see if they have a criminal history and nobody is supposed to worry about identity fraud or any other snooping or criminal activity.

Someone hang the US flag upside down, I don't even know my country anymore.

Read more on this disturbing story from National Review below:

The Department of Health and Human Services is about to hire an army of “patient navigators” to inform Americans about the subsidized insurance promised by Obamacare and assist them in enrolling. These organizers will be guided by the new Federal Data Hub, which will give them access to reams of personal information compiled by federal agencies ranging from the IRS to the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. “The federal government is planning to quietly enact what could be the largest consolidation of personal data in the history of the republic,” Paul Howard of the Manhattan Institute and Stephen T. Parente, a University of Minnesota finance professor, wrote in USA Today. No wonder that there are concerns about everything from identity theft to the ability of navigators to use the system to register Obamacare participants to vote.

HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius wasn’t satisfied with the $54 million in public funds allocated for navigators this year, so she tried to raise money from health-industry executives for Enroll America, the liberal nonprofit group leading the <acronym title="Google Page Ranking">PR</acronym> push for Obamacare. She had to retreat under withering criticism that she was shaking down companies that were dependent on government, a clear conflict of interest.

Because 34 states have declined to set up their own insurance “exchanges,” the job of guiding exchange enrollees in those states has been left to Washington. The identity of the groups who will get the Sebelius grants isn’t yet known, but Politico reports they are likely to include Planned Parenthood, senior-citizen advocacy organizations, and churches.

So far everything we’ve learned indicates the navigators will be flying blind, or could well be “unsafe at any speed.” In June, the Government Accountability Office reported that HHS is considering allowing navigators to assist with outreach and enrollment tasks even before completing their formal training. The reason? Like so much of Obamacare, the navigators program is behind schedule and drowning in its own complexity.

This spring, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee lawyers were also told by HHS that, despite the fact that navigators will have access to sensitive data such as Social Security numbers and tax returns, there will be no criminal background checks required for them. Indeed, they won’t even have to have high-school diplomas. Both U.S. Census Bureau and IRS employees must meet those minimum standards, if only because no one wants someone who has been convicted of identity theft getting near Americans’ personal records. But HHS is unconcerned. It points out that navigators will have to take a 20–30 hour online course about how the 1,200-page law works, which, given its demonstrated complexity, is like giving someone a first-aid course and then making him a med-school professor. “I want to assure you and all Americans that, when they fill out their [health-insurance] marketplace applications, they can trust the information they’re providing is protected,” said Marilyn Tavenner, head of HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, at a congressional hearing last week. In the age of Wikileaks and IRS abuses, somehow that isn’t very comforting.

http://www.isthatbaloney.com/obamaca...of-healthcare/