Government will require all Americans by 2014 to have a Obesity Rating

[teedubya]

I'm Doooooooomed. LOL.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/69436

Obesity Rating for Every American Included in Stimulus-Mandated Electronic Health Records

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity.

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.”

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

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. Specifically, the regulations issued on Tuesday by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Dr. David Blumenthal, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, define the "meaningful use" of electronic records. Under the stimulus law, health care providers--including doctors and hospitals--must establish "meaningful use" of EHRs by 2014 in order to qualify for federal subsidies. After that, they will be subjected to penalties in the form of diminished Medicare and Medicaid payments for not establishing "meaningful use" of EHRs.

Section 3001 of the stimulus law says: "The National Coordinator shall, in consultation with other appropriate Federal agencies (including the National Institute of Standards and Technology), update the Federal Health IT Strategic Plan (developed as of June 3, 2008) to include specific objectives, milestones, and metrics with respect to the following: (i) The electronic exchange and use of health information and the enterprise integration of such information.‘‘(ii) The utilization of an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014."

Under this mandate in the stimulus law, Secretary Sebelius issued a regulation--developed by Dr. Blumenthal--that requires that all EHRs keep track of a person’s Body Mass Index (BMI) score. Body Mass Index is a ratio between a person’s weight and height, and is used to determine whether or not someone is overweight or obese. It is the preferred method of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for measuring obesity.

Michelle Obama has made dealing with the problem of childhood obesity the main theme of her term as First Lady.

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin. (Photo by Penny Starr/CNSNews.com)
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.”

A person’s BMI score is used as a tool to screen for obesity or excessive body fat that could lead to other health problems. While it does not actually measure body fat directly, according to CDC, the BMI scores generally correlate with a person’s body fat percentage.

The new regulations also stipulate that the new electronic records be capable of sending public health data to state and federal health agencies such as HHS and CDC. The CDC, which calls American society “obesogenic” – meaning that American society itself promotes obesity – collects BMI scores from state health agencies every year to monitor obesity nationwide.

“Electronically record, retrieve, and transmit syndrome based public health surveillance information to public health agencies,” the regulations read.

With the spread of electronic health records, the CDC apparently will be able to collect such data more efficiently and with greater accuracy because the electronic record keeping systems can send the data automatically, eliminating the need for government – both state and federal – to keep, send, and process physical records.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Some people can't survive without the government's help.

Shit happens.

We have morgues and cemetaries for just such a contingency.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Shit happens.

Let them die? Really?

You would cast thousands of people onto America's streets and watch them die of starvation and exposure? Including elderly Americans?

Awful.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by Laz

george w bush was the worst president EVER


yes, even worse than jimmy carter

They all suck the penis...

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Let them die?

We'll make more.

Some of them might even be useful.

[sedated]

Personally I have no problem discriminating against fat people who are fat because of their own habits. Charge them more for insurance (since they are probably just as expensive as smokers) and whatever else you want to do.

However, using BMI will cause as many if not more problems than it would solve. Its inaccurate in that it would punish the people the gov’t is trying to benefit – people who are in shape and workout. Muscle mass throws everything off. If it goes where a lot of people think it might go, Bruno deadlifting Buicks at Gold Gym every day will suddenly be considered obese and a health risk, pay higher premiums, and be discriminated against just like big Bertha stuffing her face with cheeseburgers at McDonalds.

Some people are overweight for other reasons besides their eating habits. If the gov’t is going to punish fat people, they need to make sure they are only punishing fat people, and broad assumptions based on the (intentionally) simplest formula known to man isn’t the way to do it.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

My solution is to stay out of people's personal business.

This

[Bugeater]

Originally Posted by Garcia Bronco

My solution is to stay out of people's personal business.

Even when others' personal business costs us all money?

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Even when others' personal business costs us all money?

Other people's business doesn't cost you a dime, unless they're competing for your dollar in the same business. And that "cost" is known as competition.

[RJ]

So are you guys against the BMI being included in the EHR's or just against the EHR's in general?

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Let them die? Really?

You would cast thousands of people onto America's streets and watch them die of starvation and exposure? Including elderly Americans?

Awful.

We managed to go a couple hundred years without throwing the elderly out into the streets to die.

That's the problem with your concept of reality.

People really do help each other. Family members support one another. Churches do. Communities do.

This idea that the we need the government to intercede in our affairs to protect us from the streets filling with the rotting corposes of octegenarians is just garbage put forth by a government that wants you to need it. They need you to feel like they're your only option. How else to they justified these ever increasing power grabs?

And folks like you have bought into it.

Save us, oh mighty gubbamint, save us helpless masses!

Spare me. The nation managed to survive just fine without a massive Federal monolith telling us what we can eat and who we can ****.

I think we'll be alright...

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Bugeater

Even when others' personal business costs us all money?

Doesn't have to.

It does because we've chosen to allow government to subsidize poor decisions.

Yet another example of us using the government to solve a problem that the government itself has created.

And yet another pretty easy solution...

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

We managed to go a couple hundred years without throwing the elderly out into the streets to die.

LOL

Are you saying America was a better place to live 100 years ago?

I think you are taking this to the extreme. The business world just wants to make money, so they're not going to solve the obesity problem. Expecting people to just magically become more responsible isn't going to happen, nor is the food industry going to change their ways.

The only remaining option is the government do something about it...saying that's a bad thing is just stupid. Where else is a solution going to come from?

People are fat in this country because the food industry dominates advertising and doesn't give a shit about keep people healthy. The only way to combat that is the government. So you either regulate the food industry, which would make everyone bitch and moan and would be wrong anyway, or you precisely target fat Americans with free weight loss, nutrition and exercise programs.

[teedubya]

With the new Health Care reform thing, this shouldn't seem as much of a surprise. This is just the start, IMO.

If you smoke or are fat... you are the new "3/5".

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

People are fat in this country because the food industry dominates advertising and doesn't give a shit about keep people healthy. The only way to combat that is the government. So you either regulate the food industry, which would make everyone bitch and moan and would be wrong anyway, or you precisely target fat Americans with free weight loss, nutrition and exercise programs.

People are fat in this country for a variety of reasons, and giving the government more power over people isn't the solution.

For that matter, it's unconstitutional anyway, although most people just ignore that pesky document.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by GoChiefs

Let them die? Really?

You would cast thousands of people onto America's streets and watch them die of starvation and exposure? Including elderly Americans?

Awful.

On the plus side, fat people provide more Soylent Green.