Obamacare Will Track Americans’ Sexual Activities

President Obama’s signature piece of legislation, the inaccurately-titled Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, is about to go into effect, and virtually no one understands exactly how it will work. Huge sections of the bill have been delayed until future years, and several states have opted out of its health insurance exchanges and Medicaid expansions.

When Obamacare was first up for debate, Nancy Pelosi infamously said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it.” Now, we’re beginning to find out what she meant. The New York Post is reporting that doctors will be required to keep track of patients’ sexual habits during each visit, whether or not these personal details relate to the illness in question, or risk facing penalties. Meanwhile, a bureaucrat working to implement Obamacare just accidentally leaked 2,400 Social Security numbers to an insurance agent. What would happen if a bureaucrat or hacker leaked records of patients’ sexual activities or sexually-transmitted diseases?

Health Records Compliance Tied to Reimbursements, Penalties

Under Obamacare, doctors are required to ask patients questions about their sexuality during each visit, whether or not such details are relevant to the illness at hand. Specifically, patients will be grilled on whether or not they are sexually active, how many partners they’re active with, and whether or not those partners are of the same sex. Even doctors that treat biological systems with no connection to sexual activity will be forced to ask these invasive, awkwardly-irrelevant questions.

Currently, healthcare providers receive lucrative incentive payments for complying with the new federal electronic medical records database. By 2015, doctors will face penalties on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements if they fail to record and share these details. This means that most doctors and hospitals will participate.

Healthcare Privacy Is Crucial for Proper Medical Diagnosis

A previous stimulus bill contained a provision requiring all doctors to hand over patients’ private medical records, in violation of patient-doctor privilege. This was sold as a way to streamline medical record-keeping. However, patients often share their most private, intimate details with doctors, including sexual habits and whether or not they use illegal drugs. Doctors need to know these details in order to properly diagnose illnesses. Some patients, particularly those who participate in outside-of-the-mainstream sexual activities or illicit drug use, may no longer feel comfortable admitting these habits to their doctors, if they feel the information could be shared with others — particularly the government. This could lead to misdiagnoses.

Imagine the chaos that would unfold if a hacker leaked patients’ sexual activities or sexually-transmitted disease histories and published them online. What if an incumbent politician spied on an opponent’s health records in order to gain scandalous information about personal activities during a political campaign? Similarly, what if a future president spied on the health records of Congress in an effort to gain support for an unpopular bill? What if a patient’s drug use history were leaked to the DEA for criminal prosecution?

If patients believe that Big Brother is listening in on their doctor visits, they may stop telling doctors the truth. This could lead to widespread misdiagnoses and significant harm to the US healthcare system.

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