Privacy and Obamacare

Both the left and the right are raising concerns about these invasions of privacy. The Electronic Privacy Information Center announced it opposes these provisions because the legislation "violates the intent of the Privacy Act which generally requires agencies to obtain information directly from individuals and not from other agencies." The Institute for Policy Innovation likewise worries: "How many thousands of federal employees will have access to your records? The privacy of your health records will be only as good as the most nosy, most dishonest and most malcontented federal employee."

Many government employees wouldn't abuse access to this information, but if you want to know what life can be like with this personal information floating around, ask Joe Wurzelbacher, known popularly as Joe the Plumber. After asking candidate Barack Obama a question and accidentally becoming a sideshow of last autumn's presidential campaign, Joe the Plumber was the victim of Obama supporters within the Ohio state government who searched documents for embarrassing details about him. That personal information was leaked to the press.

Even a well-meaning government can easily turn into an oppressive government. Bureaucrats have no right to minute details about our personal lives, but government health care would hand it all over.