Is the Senate health plan anti-gun?
Archimandrite Josef
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
The Washington Examiner
November 24, 2009
The Senate's 2,074-page health care bill doesn't mention guns, but some
gun owners are worried certain provisions could eventually be used to
discourage or even restrict gun ownership as part of a government
effort to influence behavior as it broadens its control over the health
care system.
The day before the Senate passed the $848 billion health bill on a
party-line vote, the Virginia-based Gun Owners of America sent out a
mass alert to its 300,000 members, warning them that the legislation
"will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government
database. ... This includes any firearms-related information your
doctor has gleaned or any determination of post traumatic stress
disorder or something similar, that can preclude you from owning
firearms."
The group warned that new "wellness and prevention" programs that would
permit employers to offer employees lower premiums for healthier
lifestyles do not include anything that would prohibit "rabidly
anti-gun Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from
decreeing that 'no guns' is somehow healthier."
With no specific legislative language relating to guns, it is unlikely
the issue will become a major roadblock for the bill.
But critics and gun owners have highlighted a larger concern about
government interference if the legislation becomes law. The bill would
expand coverage to 31 million people through subsidies and Medicaid
expansion.
"There is a broader issue here," said Dave Kopel, research director of
the Independence Institute of Colorado, a libertarian think tank. "The
more you socialize costs, the more you empower the argument that the
government has the authority to control private behavior."
Kopel pointed to the Japanese health care system, where employee
waistlines are measured and those who are overweight are put into
special weight loss programs, as an example of where the U.S. health
care system could be headed.
And gun control could become part of it, Kopel said.
"If [the Department of Health and Human Services] can write regulations
for lower premiums for healthy habits in general," Kopel said. "Then I
don't see anything in the bill that stops HHS from saying people get
higher premiums for unhealthy habits such as owning a gun or a handgun."
Gun Owners of America spokesman Erich Pratt said the government has
already blocked gun ownership through its access to the mental health
records of military veterans. If a vet is diagnosed with post traumatic
stress disorder, his or her name is sent to a special database used to
prohibit gun purchases. So far, 150,000 veterans have been denied
firearms using the list, Pratt said. The Senate bill could widen
government oversight of who can own a gun, he warned.
"With these mandates, it is really going to be impossible to keep our
medical information out of this database," Pratt said.
Supporters of the bill said gun rights groups are trying to stir up
unnecessary fear.
"It is very clear they are misreading the bill," said Igor Volsky, a
health care researcher for the Center for American Progress, a liberal
think tank. "All this bill does is define what a wellness program is.
It is a broad definition, but it is not broad enough to net gun
ownership."
sferr...@washingtonexaminer.com
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