Health Freedom Watch | cchfreedom.org | 1

HEALTH FREEDOM WATCHVolume 21: Issue 1: 1st Quarter 2018

CCHF is actively working to restore health freedom. For example, we’ve had a conference call with the federal Office of Management and Bud-get (OMB). CCHF asked for parent consent to be reinstated for research using newborn DNA. We also had a phone call with Roger Severino, di-rector of the HHS Office of Civil Rights to discuss patients who are denied treatment when they lawfully refuse to sign the HIPAA form. These meetings result from building relationships with congressional staffers who are now in the Trump administration.

Our president Twila Brase attended an invitation-only health policy summit in Washington, D.C. led by a former member of Congress. Several current members dropped in to speak, giving her an opportunity to ask Rep. Mark Meadows, head of the GOP Freedom Caucus, to repeal the ACA’s prohi-

bition on the sale of affordable cata-strophic coverage (true insurance).

Brase countered the GOP proposals to save Obamacare. She said the bil-lions in ACA “stabilization” funds will “take money from your back pocket in taxes so you can take less from your front pocket to pay premiums.” This does not reduce health care costs, but it makes people think Congress has done something to help them. Brase also told the conservative groups around the table to refuse the premise of socialized medicine: guaranteed issue of insurance for people with uninsurable (pre-existing) conditions. Once this seemingly compassionate, but dangerous idea is accepted, it’s just a matter of how socialized medi-cine looks in America, not if we’ll have it. Better to target the root of the prob-lem (third-party payment) and restore personal ownership of insurance.

in this issue

A Letter From The PresidentTwila Brase, RN, PHN, President & Co-founder of CCHF Page 3

Protecting Privacy—to Protect Freedom Page 4

HFM Radio: British Hospital Cuts Cancer Care - January 16, 2017 Page 6

News to KnowCCHF shares important news you may have missed. Page 6

Help CCHF Sound the Alarm! Page 7

Reaching Out with Unconventional Truth

Continued on Page 2

Above: U.S. Capitol lit up for session taking place inside. Photo by CCHF president after a late meeting with House staff.

2 | Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom | Health Freedom Watch

Speaking on “Winning the Individual Health Decision War,” at the Constitu-tional Coalition conference in St. Lou-is, MO, Brase discussed The Wedge (jointhewedge.com) and presented 5 facts for understanding health care:

1) There is no such thing as “health care.” There is health insurance and medical care. The merger of financing for and delivery of medical care in people’s minds and language has ad-vanced socialized medicine (treatment decisions under outside control).

2) The Affordable Care Act, the indi-vidual mandate and its penalty have not been repealed. The only thing the GOP tax bill did was zero out the penalty. Instead of $695 or 2.5% of your income, the law now says $0 or zero percent of your income.

3) Health plans are not insurance. They are a corporate version of social-

ized medicine. True insurance does not have networks, prior authorization or medical necessity definitions. True insurance determines payment, pays you and then you pay your hospital and doctors. Single-payer advocate Sen. Ted Kennedy’s HMO Act of 1973 merged the delivery and financ-ing of medical care by establishing HMOs, now called “health plans.”

4) The mandate to cover uninsurable, pre-existing conditions eliminated

health insurance in the US. The ACA has socialized coverage. Real insur-ance insures against conditions you don’t yet have, so it’s affordable.

5) Too many Republicans in power are socialist in their thinking when it comes to health care. Witness WI Gov. Scott Walker, who wants federal “save ACA” funds and is pushing for a state law to mandate insurers cover uninsurable pre-existing conditions.

Back in Minnesota, CCHF legislative specialist Matt Flanders worked to oppose repeal of the state medical privacy law. And Brase reminded a business group, “He who holds the dollars and the data makes the rules.” She also said no one has to become or stay a doctor. A 2016 study found 48% of physicians plan to end or se-verely limit patient load. One attendee thanked her because she “hit a few nerves from 2 different sides.”

Health Freedom Watch is published quarterly by Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCH Freedom), a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt health care policy research and education organization.

CCH Freedom’s mission is to protect health care choices, individualized patient care and medical and genetic privacy rights.

CCH Freedom does not endorse any health care treatment, provider, or product. Nothing in Health Freedom Watch should be construed as medical advice or legal counsel.

©2016. Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom. Permission is granted to reprint any article in this issue (except guest editorials) provided credit is given and notification or a copy of the reprinted material is distributed to Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom.

EditorTwila Brase, RN, PHNPresident & Co-founder

Associate EditorBarbara Smith

Assistant Editor Crystal Quiring

CCHF161 St. Anthony Ave. Suite 923Saint Paul, MN 55103Tel: (651) 646-8935Fax: (651) 646-0100info@cchfreedom.org

Health Freedom Watch

Your gift is very much appreciated and fully deductible as a charitable contribution. A copy of our latest financial report may be obtained by writing to Citizens’ Council for Health Free-dom, 161 St. Anthony Ave., Ste 923, St. Paul, MN 55103, 651-646-8935. If you are a resident of one of these states, you may obtain financial information directly from the state agency: CALIFORNIA – As of August 2016, CCHF no longer solicits donations from California residents. A FLORIDA – A COPY OF THE OFFICIAL REGISTRATION AND FINANCIAL INFOR-MATION MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER SERVICES BY CALLING TOLL-FREE, 1-800-435-7352 (800-HELP-FLA) WITHIN THE STATE OR BY VISITING www.800helpfla.com.. REGISTRATION DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT, APPROVAL, OR RECOMMENDATION BY THE STATE. Florida Registration (CH35276). GEORGIA - A full and fair description of the programs of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom and our financial statement summary is available upon request at the office and phone number indicated above. MARYLAND – For the cost of copies and postage, Office of the Secretary of State, State House, Annapolis, MD 21401. MISSISSIPPI – The organization’s official registration and financial information may be obtained from the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office by calling 1-888-236-6167. Registration by the Secretary of State does not imply endorsement. NEW JERSEY – INFORMATION FILED WITH THE ATTORNEY GENERAL CONCERNING THIS CHARITABLE SOLICITATION AND THE PERCENTAGE OF CONTRIBUTIONS RECEIVED BY THE CHARITY DURING THE LAST REPORTING PERIOD THAT WERE DEDICATED TO THE CHARITABLE PURPOSE MAY BE OBTAINED FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY BY CALLING (973) 504-6215 AND IS AVAILABLE ON THE INTERNET AT http://www.state.nj.us/lps/ca/charfrm.htm. REGISTRATION WITH THE ATTOR-NEY GENERAL DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT. NEW YORK – Office of the Attorney General, Department of Law, Charities Bureau, 120 Broadway, New York, NY 10271. NORTH CAROLINA – FINANCIAL INFORMATION ABOUT THIS ORGANIZATION AND A COPY OF ITS LICENSE ARE AVAILABLE FROM THE STATE SOLICITATION LICENSING BRANCH AT 1-888-830-4989. THE LICENSE IS NOT AN ENDORSEMENT BY THE STATE. PENNSYLVANIA – The official registration and financial information of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. VIRGINIA – Virginia State Office of Consumer Affairs, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Services, PO Box 1163, Richmond, VA 23218. WASHINGTON – Charities Division, Office of the Secretary of State, State of Washington, Olympia, WA 98504-0422, 1-800-332-4483. WEST VIRGINIA – Residents may obtain a summary of the registration and financial documents from the Secretary of State, State Capitol, Charleston, WV 25305. Registration with any of these state agencies does not imply endorsement, approval or recommendation by any state.

Health plans are

not insurance.

They are a

corporate version

of socialized

medicine.

Health Freedom Watch | cchfreedom.org | 3

I’m glad my book is coming out soon. The mandated govern-ment-certified electronic health record (“government EHR”) is socializing our health care system at a rapid rate. See page 7.

That’s not all. Congress wants to strip Americans of the last vestiges of privacy/consent requirements:

DATA CLEARINGHOUSES: If passed, H.R. 4613 would give health data clearinghouses the power to share, analyze and use patient data freely. Clearinghouses have 90% of all medical claims. But HIPAA currently restricts their use of the data to claims process-ing. Three data clearinghouses have started a “Claim Your Health Data Coalition” to convince Con-gress to permit sharing and use of data as broadly as HIPAA allows “covered entities” (hospitals, clin-ics, health plans, practitioners) to use and share data without patient consent. They envision a central-ized lifelong record of a patient’s data, which would mean nowhere to hide—unless you use cash.

SUBSTANCE ABUSE RECORDS: The House and Senate have bills that would repeal current patient consent requirements for shar-ing substance abuse records. If passed, the substance abuse re-cords of patients could be shared as broadly as all other data under HIPAA. NOTE: The kind of consent that patients with substance abuse issues have is the kind we should all have—the kind HIPAA eliminat-ed. (S. 581 and H.R. 5009)

The exception to the above is if a state has stronger privacy laws than HIPAA’s no-privacy rule. Pa-tients in those states have privacy protections no matter what Con-gress does. Congress is giving citizen health data away with no thought of privacy, or 4th Amend-ment or private property rights.

This is a government taking.

As the Legal Information Institute says, “A taking is when the gov-ernment uses, regulates and seizes private property. This action is governed by rules set by legisla-tures. In addition, the Fifth Amend-ment requires the government to pay ‘just compensation’ when taking property for public use. This requirement applies to the states as well as the federal govern-ment.” And “the Fifth Amendment’s compensation requirement is not limited to government seizures of real property. Instead, it extends to all kinds of tangible and intangible property, including easements, personal property, contract rights, and trade secrets.”

We are experiencing the “Kelo” of patient data.

In 2005, the city seized Suzette Kelo’s home and neighborhood for a planned commercial develop-ment expected to increase the tax rolls (Kelo vs. City of New London). The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against her. but many troubled state legislatures passed state laws to prohibit such takings.

Similarly, Congress is taking the personal property (data) of patients and allowing it to be used to gener-ate private wealth, seize control of physician decisions, profile pa-tients, limit choices, penalize physi-cians who think out of the box, and take over the entire health care system. If you want to buy a copy of the first printing of my book, email our office: info@cchfree-dom.org. We’ve started a list!

Twila Brase, RN, PHNPresident and Co-founder

A Letter From The President

December “Senate Tax Bill Repeals Individual Man-date - But It’s Not Enough” – Twila Brase, CNSNews, 12/4/17“Overview of CCHF; What Is Currently Happening with Healthcare in the Market-place” – Doug Apple, WAKU-FM, 12/21/17“This Week’s News That Wasn’t” – Jay Baker, PersonalLiberty.com, 12/21/17January“Those Drug Prices . . . Oh, My Good-ness” – Chris Woodward, OneNewsNow.com, 1/10/18The State of the ACA and the Repeal of the Individual Mandate” – Dan Celia, Financial Issues, 1/18/18“HHS Religious Freedom Division Draws Praise, Alarm in Minnesosta” – Mark Zde-chlik, MPR News, 1/18/18“Rollback of Privacy Law Would Ease Sharing of Substance Abuse Records” – James Romoser, Inside Health Policy, 1/24/18February“Finding Health Freedom” – Joel Rissinger, Pondering Radio, 2/1/18“Fed to Give All Your Health Data to Re-searchers” – Bob Unruh, WorldNetDaily, www.wnd.com, 10/4/17“Health Plans and Hospitals Attempting to Repeal Minnesota Law That Protects Patient Privacy” – Jay Rudolph, Kinship Christian Radio, 2/13/18“What Is Wrong with Governor Scott Walker?” – Jim Schneider, Crosstalk, VCY America, 2/21/18

in the news

Twila Brase, RN, PHN, President & Co-founder, CCHFreedom.org

4 | Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom | Health Freedom Watch

CCHF Releases Cutting-Edge Report on Biometrics

CCHF has long believed a national ID will become a national patient ID. The Clinton health plan proposed a Unique Patient Identifier (UPI), HIPAA made it law, and former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul prohibited funding for it for nearly 20 years. Thus, CCHF opposed REAL ID because it could be required for access to medical care (“no card, no care”) and used to track patients and control doctors. Now U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) has proposed a biometric ID for all American workers.

During our 2016 battle against REAL ID, we learned about a global corpo-ration called MorphoTrust (see the photo sent to us above), which has since been sold, merged and re-named IDEMIA. It produces driver’s licenses and ID cards for Americans in 42 states and 100 percent of Ameri-can passports. But there’s more.

IDEMIA calls itself number one in civil identity solutions and is involved in the world’s largest biometric ID pro-gram: Aadhaar (India). It has issued over 3 billion ID documents in 135 different identity programs across the globe. In CCHF’s new report, Expos-ing Idemia: The Push for National Biometric IDs in America, we dis-cuss “augmented identity,” biometric surveillance and biometric require-ments for access. IDEMIA is planning for a future where a person’s biomet-rics are used for every day transac-tions, travel, purchases, and verifying identity. View their video (idemia.com).

IDEMIA facilitates biometric data collection from Americans, works with TSA Precheck, and has developed the software for a FBI biometric database and the facial recognition software soon to be deployed in every airport. It’s already at the McCarran Interna-tional Airport in Las Vegas, NV.

Under biometric ID mandates, Amer-

icans lose control over data that is uniquely theirs and, unlike a pass-word, cannot be altered to protect against intrusions. As Adam Schwartz at the Electronic Frontier Foundation says, “Biometrics are a menace to privacy… Credit-card numbers can be changed but faces and finger-prints can’t.” He further notes, “Once biometric data is captured, it frequent-ly flows between governmental and private sector users.”

To read the full CCHF report, go to: http://bit.ly/cchfidemia.

Protecting Privacy—TO Protect FreedomBy Matt Flanders, CCHF Legislative Specialist

“Credit-card

numbers can be

changed but faces

and fingerprints

can’t.”

Health Freedom Watch | cchfreedom.org | 5

Big Business, Healthcare In-dustry and MN Health Dept. Push to End Patient Privacy

CCHF has discovered a plan to take away patient privacy rights currently protected by the MN Health Re-cords Act (MHRA) – one of the na-tion’s strongest privacy laws. HIPAA, the federal “privacy” rule, which does NOT protect privacy, allows states to write laws that DO protect privacy. Over the past few years, CCHF has stopped multiple industry-supported Democrat bills to repeal these priva-cy protections, often with the help of a few pro-privacy Democrats.

But now big businesss, industry lob-byists and government officials are telling Republicans that MN needs to “follow the HIPAA standard,” which means the end of patient privacy and consent requirements. They say it’ll save health care dollars, but it’ll only boost their profits because data is the 21st century version of gold. They’ll use it to profile patients and doctors and limit care. They hope the public won’t act to stop their plan.

For “optimal” health info. exchange, the MN Dept. of Health (MDH) rec-ommends full repeal of MHRA, or repeal of consent for payment (64-word HIPAA definition) and/or treat-ment (62-word definition), and/or health care operations (nearly 400-word definition).

MDH admits, “This approach may raise privacy concerns because of the broad scope of health care oper-ations,” and it would remove privacy protections for “sensitive information such as mental health, HIV/STD, and genetic information.”

We need your help! You must hold their feet to the fire! We’re meeting with MN legislators asking them to vote “no” on repealing the MHRA. TELL your MN state legislators: “Don’t repeal one word of MN’s pa-tient privacy law.” Let us know what they say. Senate info: 651-296-0504; House info: 651-296-2146.

,

Repeal may “raise privacy

concerns because of the broad scope of

health care operations”

- MN Dept of Health report

From Idemia’s Website: The Aadhaar program assigns a unique 12-digit iden-tification number to all residents of India, based on the secure registration of

their biometric data: fingerprints, iris and facial recognition. The ID gives them access to numerous services: social benefits, medical care, opening a bank account, etc. Morpho (now Idemia) is a major contributor to this program.

CCHF’s Health Freedom Minute is now heard on more than 800 stations around the nation. Find our station list at cchfreedom.org and tune in every week day! (To listen: www.healthfreedomminute.net)

British Hospital Cuts Cancer CareJanuary 16, 2018A top hospital in England is delaying chemotherapy for cancer patients. And those with terminal illness may get fewer treatments. The hospital has a shortage of specialist nurses, so administrators described the cuts in a memo to staff. The cancer unit has a 40 percent shortage of nurses skilled in chemotherapy.England’s national health care system has tens of thousands of vacancies and there are no prospects for improvement in the next two years. Experts blame the shortages on central planning, as they should. Universal coverage is not care, and in the U.S. fight over socialized medicine, Americans should remember that no one has to become a doctor or a nurse.

“Top Oxford Hospital Cuts Cancer Care Due to Lack of Staff,” Chris Smyth, The Times, January 10, 2018: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/churchill-hospital-in-oxford-cuts-cancer-care-due-to-lack-of-staff-t6nswqm5b

Insurer’s Medical Director Makes Shocking Admission

A former medical director of Aetna, the nation’s third-largest insurer, admitted under oath he never looked at patient’s medical records when approving or denying care. California’s insurance commissioner, Dave Jones, stated his office is investigating. He remarked, “If the health in-surer is making decisions to deny coverage without a physician actually ever reviewing medical records, that’s of significant concern to me as insurance commissioner in California—and potentially a violation of law.” Jones is asking patients who suffered harm to contact his office.

Nearly 1/3 of Americans Believe Trump Repealed Obamacare

Trump signed the tax bill into law and said that the bill “essentially” repeals the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Although it zeroed out the penalty for not maintaining coverage, the ACA mandate language and the rest of the law remain intact. Despite this fact, 31 percent of 1,500 Americans surveyed thought that Trump had repealed Obamacare and 21 percent were unsure. Republicans (44 percent) were more likely to believe that the ACA had been repealed than Democrats (27 percent).

“Metric Fixation” Reduces Quality of Care

Institutions from businesses to schools to government and health care suffer from “metric fixation” – the idea that performance can be measured by collecting data and setting penalties or rewards based on results. However, collecting, reporting and analyzing the data take time away from the activity being measured and adds costs. These performance-based metrics often lead to unintended consequences such as doctors focused on processing quantities of patients instead of individualizing treatment, and seeing easier cases while avoiding sicker, more complex patients.

Virtual Medicine Does Little to Help Patients

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 86 percent of health care expenses in the U.S. are for chronic illnesses. Some believed that Virtual Medicine would help patients do more for their personal health care. Recent studies involving digital timer pill bot-tles, wireless blood pressure cuffs, digital symptom-monitoring devices, wireless scales, and other high-tech devices failed to make any differ-ence compared with conventional care — unless coupled with financial incentives.

In Case You Missed ItTo sign up for our weekly eNews, visit bit.ly/enews-letter

Radio: Health Freedom Minute

6 | Health Freedom Watch

These performance-based metrics often lead to unintended consequences

The electronic health record in your doctor’s office is not what it seems.The government-certified electronic health record (“government EHR”) man-dated by Congress is collecting your private information, sharing it with the government, using it to control your doctor’s decisions and threatening lives.

This EHR is a surveillance system imposed to establish socialized medicine in America—doctors who refuse it are paid less—and it must be stopped.

BIG BROTHER IN THE EXAM ROOM, authored by CCHF’s president, is nearing publication. This book will warn Americans about the serious dangers, including death and injury, resulting from this $30 billion political experiment on America’s patients. There’s no time to lose. Americans must learn how close we are to government control of our entire health care system.

We need your help to sound the alarm.

We’re working with a publishing company for editing, proofing and design, but we must raise at least $30,000 to print, market, and distribute this book. It is urgent that we grab the attention of the public and the news media.

Can you help? There’s no time to lose!

With your financial support, we will expose the dangerous truth about the government EHR and share our list of specific action steps for lawmakers, clinicians and citizens—steps back to health freedom.

To join this groundbreaking effort, donate at http://bit.ly/give2cchf or use the enclosed envelope. Please give today!

Help us get the word out – and get the government OUT of the exam room.

Health Freedom Watch | cchfreedom.org | 7

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Please make your check payable to/mail to:

Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom161 St. Anthony Ave., Suite 923Saint Paul, MN 55103

Thank you for your support! Your tax-deductible gift supports health freedom, medical and genetic privacy rights, health care choices, physician freedom, and the protection and preservation of individualized patient care.

*CCHF has received 501(c)3 non-profit status from the IRS. CCHF has received permission to solicit charitable donations in all states except California. In August 2016, we withdrew our registration in CA to avoid the AG’s demand that we share the confidential names of certain donors. The full disclosure regarding solicitation is found on page 2 of this newsletter.

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161 St. Anthony Ave., Suite 923Saint Paul, MN 55103

“There can’t be a free market if I don’t know what the prices are.”

– Chris Raymond, former medical reporter for the Journal

of the American Medical Association who called her

insurance company recently to get the price of a brain scan,

“Consumer Choice for Health Care Lags Behind Rhetoric,”

RollCall.com, December 4, 2017

“Today’s search engines are better at helping doctors diagnose

disease than our EMRs.” – Lloyd Minor, Dean of Stanford

School of Medicine, Quartz, August 28, 2017

“I just made the decision. I wanted to take a stand against anybody

telling someone what they have to do especially when it comes to an invasive procedure. That’s totally against what medicine has stood

for in the past.” – Dr. David Laposky, fired from

Essentia Health for refusing to get the flu vaccination, Fox 9 News,

November 30, 2017

“Without the individual mandate, the exchanges will not die but will

continue as zombies offering high-cost coverage, fed by the federal

government and stumbling around the health system failing to serve

their original purpose — access for all regardless of age, health status

or pre-existing conditions.” – JB Silvers, New York Times,

Opinion, December 4, 2017

Overheard

“Public spending on health care only knows one way to go.”

– Charles M Silver, Prof. of Gov’t, Univ. of TX at Austin, 1/5/2018.