Sunday, July 15, 2012

Do you have a gun in your house? Your Doctor wants to know and so does the government.


When I got the following email message last week the first thought I had was how preposterous it sounded, until I read another article that follows it that confirmed it. The Federal government has required doctors to ask their patients if they have guns in their houses. Read it and become aware. The results of this informal survey sounds like defacto gun registration. Then, while having an office visit with my wife's doctor a few weeks ago, he casually asked me the same question and a chill went up my spine. He didn't ask me if we had any knives or other sharp objects in the house, he asked me about guns, and he knows we don't have any children living here.
Do you have a gun in your House?
When I had my gallbladder taken out and spent 10 days in the hospital for what should have been an overnight stay the insurance company kicked me out. I had home nurse visits for two weeks and was asked if I had guns in the house. I respond that if I did I would not tell them. So the below has some merit. 
FYI, I am passing this along...there are comments from two other people I have also been asked if we keep guns in the house. The nurse just kinda slipped it in along with all the other regular questions. I told her I refused to answer because it was against the law to ask.
Everyone, whether you have guns or not, should give a neutral answer so they have no idea who does and who doesn't. My doctor asked me if I had guns in my house and also if any were loaded. I, of course, answered yes to both questions. Then he asked why I kept a loaded gun close to my bed. I answered that my son, who is a certified gun instructor and also works for Homeland Security, advised me that an unloaded, locked up gun is no protection against criminal attack. 
The Government now requires these questions be asked of people on Medicare, and probably everyone else. 
Just passing this along for your information: I had to visit a doctor other than my regular doctor when my doctor was on vacation.. One of the questions on the form I had to fill out was: Do you have any guns in your house?? My answer was None of your damn business!!
So it is out there! It is either an insurance issue or government intervention. Either way, it is out there and the second the government gets into your medical records (as they want to under Obamacare) it will become a major issue and will ultimately result in lock and load!!
Please pass this on to all the other retired guys and gun owners...Thanks, from a Vietnam Vet and retired Police Officer: I had a doctors appointment at the local VA clinic yesterday and found out something very interesting that I would like to pass along. While going through triage before seeing the doctor, I was asked at the end of the exam, three questions: 
1. Did I feel stressed? 2. Did I feel threatened? 3. Did I feel like doing harm to someone? The nurse then informed me, that if I had answered yes to any of the questions, I would have lost my concealed carry permit as it would have gone into my medical records and the VA would have reported it to Homeland Security. 
Looks like they are going after the vets first. Other gun people like retired law enforcement will probably be next. Then when they go after the civilians, what argument will they have? Be forewarned and be aware. The Obama administration has gone on record as considering veterans and gun owners potential terrorists. Whether you are a gun owner, veteran or not, YOU‘VE BEEN WARNED ! 
If you know veterans and gun owners, please pass this on to them. Be very cautious about what you say and to whom.
And then I read this. If the above message was so preposterous then why would the Florida legislature think it was important enough to pass a law to ban it in the first place. There is more here than meets the eye. Doctors are now required to keep electronic patient records, stored in their office computers. All of my doctors tell me that this info goes into an electronic data base. This means that all my medical history is available to any government agency or insurance company or Medicare that requires it. Including any info about guns in my home that I may have mentioned in a casual conversation to my doctor.
In a July 5 letter to Florida-based NRA members and friends, Marion P. Hammer, NRA Past President and current Unified Sportsmen of Florida Executive Director, wrote:
“…[on] June 29, in an order that reads like it was written by the Brady Campaign and the anti-gun lawyers of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Miami Judge Marcia Cooke struck down the so-called Docs & Glocks law, which would have protected Florida’s gun owner privacy rights.
“Judge Cooke’s order ridiculed the law, saying supporters of the law couldn’t provide anything but ‘anecdotal information’ to prove the law was needed to protect patients from discrimination. She said the state’s arguments in favor of the law rest on a ‘legislative illusion.’”
Hammer’s letter continued, “Be very careful, ANYTHING you say or tell your doctor in confidence may not be confidential at all anymore, if they enter it or has entered it into your medical records. Particularly, whether you have guns in the home and where they are stored.”
She said the Florida law, passed to stop doctors from interrogating children and their parents about gun ownership and guns in the home, and entering the information into medical records, is especially important now. Fears are escalating that government will have access to medical records that can become lists of gun owners, Hammer said.
She wrote, “If you doubt the government can access your medical records, ask yourself if you really believed the federal government could force you to buy health insurance.”
I checked Google for references to this subject and read one of those side-stepping "fact-checks" on the left-leaning Snopes that claimed that "Medicare" has not required doctors to ask this question. Well, technically speaking, if you limit your denial solely to the single point that Medicare doesn't do it that does not mean that some other government agency such as the Dept. of Health and Human Services or some quasi-government group such as the American Medical Association hasn't done the same thing. And didn't the AMA come out and endorse Obamacare?
Next thing you will know is that some bureaucrat will rule that guns are unhealthy to have in your home. And like those employers who want to know if you smoke at home and then cancel your health insurance if you tell them you do, the government will do the same thing. So besides having the government compile a list of which citizens admits to owning a gun, they will threaten to cancel your Medicare coverage or any other health insurance unless you agree to surrender your firearms.
My name is Nelson Abdullah and I am Oldironsides.

21 comments:

  1. Nelson, This is total bullshit. There is no such law. It's a typical conservative ploy. Tell a lie often enough and people will begin to believe it.

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    1. My doctor told me just last week I will have to answer this question the first visit in 2013--law? regulation? what is the difference in a social dictatorship??

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    2. The left typically accuses the right of their own tactics. "Tell a lie often enough and people will begin to believe it". The Progressive Socialists call Conservatives and Tea Party members racists and violent while in the same breath sending bus loads of Union Thugs to beat up people protesting union controls. The leftists are masters of Name Calling, personal character attacks and violent destructive protest marches yet they accuse peaceful, average, principled Americans and War Veterans of racism, hatred and violence.
      The Democrat, Socialist, Progressives do not veer from their anti American tactics and constantly tell half truths and lie with a straight face to the media cameras.

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    3. I am 70 yrs old and, shockingly, at my first medicare visit, while completing my paperwork, there was the gun question staring me right in the face - I could not believe it - now all doubt and disbelief was put aside. Have since filled out the paperwork and updates several times in the past 5 years and have always answered the question with "Private and Personal Information" and I've never been prompted to provide anything more.

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  2. Anonymous, There are laws and then there are regulations. Regulations don't need to be passed by Congress they just get written by bureaucrats. And some rules, like employers wanting to know if their workers smoke because their health insurance carriers demand the answers, have the same effect. Ask yourself this question: If this gun question wasn't a new regulation then why would the Florida legislation pass a law to forbid it?

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  3. Anonymous, I was at my doctor's office today; I haven't been in over a year, so they had me fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions stood out b/c it wasn't related to my medical history at all. It was "do you have guns in your home". Additionally, my doctor was busy typing everything into his computer. He said it was all new to him, and needed to figure it all out still. He entered the tests that we agreed I needed, that I refused a flu shot, and I don't know what all... When I asked him why they asked about having guns in the house, he said "they" were gathering data. He said the insurance companies require it because the government requires it from them. Time to wake up Anonymous! It's not BS like you want to believe. It's TRUE and it's here. Maybe instead of suggesting that Nelson is wrong, you go to your doctor and ask him first. If they are truthful, they will tell you that yes, they are required to ask that question. OH and I'm not on Medicare either, they are asking this of everyone apparently.

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    1. my daughter was asked the same question when i was out of the room !

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  4. http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/medicare.asp

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    1. First of all, I didn't say Medicare was requiring doctors to ask the question, the person who wrote the first story said it. What I did say and what others have also said is that doctors ARE asking the question and the information you give your doctor goes into a database that the government has access too. If it isn't Medicare then its possible that some other department - maybe Health and Human Services - is asking it. By the way, Snopes is a liberal shill web site and you cannot believe everything they write.

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  5. My wife came home from her doctor's office less than an hour ago, and she's been informed by her doctor that one of the questions the doctor must ask every patient after 1/1/2013 is, "Are there firearms in your home?" In addition, the doctor says that she must also ask some very pointed questions about sex and sexual practices. The data she collects has to be reported to the federal government on a regular basis.

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  6. So my real question is - Am I required to ANSWER this and other questions (e.g. Do you feel safe in your home/relationship?) If "they" wish to require Dr's to ask, I guess that's fine. If I'm REQUIRED to answer, that's different. IF I'm required to answer, is truth required? What are the consequences or refusing/giving incorrect answers?

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    1. A prominent lawyer once said, The only time I'm required to tell the truth is when my hand is on a bible. As far as I'm concerned you can tell the doctor its none of his business, or declare your 5th Amendment rights against self incrimination, tell a lie or tell the truth.

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  7. I recently had a physical and I was asked those questions. When I asked the doctor about it, he answered that it was on the forms and was required to ask. He didn't answer the question to my satisfaction regarding why and I told him to bypass those questions and continue. Who is requiring it and who has access to that data base?

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  8. Snopes.com says it's false, although it was researched and commented on in March AND April 2012. However, after being to a new doctor and in an Emergency room since December of 2012, I can tell you that I was asked on the medical information application whether I felt safe at home, and if there were "firearms" in the home. I said yes, and n/a. When the doctor came in, and scanned my information, he asked me, do you feel safe in your home, and do you "own" firearms? I said yes, I feel safe in the home I am renting. I did not answer whether I have firearms in my home or not. I have also been reviewing other "blog" pages and it is noticeable that many blogers state that SNOPES-dot-com posts, but not whether it is an actual law or regulation by the government, and I admit, I did not read where exactly this blogger or blog owner states where s/he found information based on government vs insurances asking the questions, the fact of the matter is that it is happening in SOME areas, I just happen to be in a suburb outside of Baltimore, MD.

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    1. It is interesting to note that since I posted this 6 months ago Obama has now come out with his 23 Executive Orders on Gun Control. A few weeks ago someone "discovered" that Democrat Sen. Harry Reid had inserted some words into Obama's Socialist Medicine plan, call it Obamacare or the Affordable Care Act, that said Doctors would not be required to question patients about their gun ownership. It was buried down on page 767 of H.R. 3590 and it says:

      LIMITATION ON DATA COLLECTION.—
      None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used for the collection of any information relating to—
      ‘‘(A) the lawful ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition;
      ‘‘(B) the lawful use of a firearm or ammunition; or
      ‘‘(C) the lawful storage of a firearm or ammunition.
      ‘‘(3) LIMITATION ON DATABASES OR DATA BANKS.—
      None of the authorities provided to the Secretary under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act or an amendment made by that Act shall be construed to authorize or may be used to maintain records of individual ownership or possession of a firearm or ammunition.

      Well today, that shallow gesture that Harry Reid offered to get the NRA from opposing Obamacare evaporated into the air when Obama proposed the 23 changes he plans to make law with his Executive Orders. Rule #16 said. "Clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes." In light of the technological advancements made in electronic record keeping, all patient medical records are now accessible by the government. This technology also means that patients suffering from violent forms of mental illness can be and should be placed on a "no gun buy list" that would be accessible when background checks are being made at the point of purchase. So why isn't this already being implemented? How did James Holmes, the homocidal maniac who killed 12 people and wounded 58 in Aurora, Colorado, get a pass from the NICS background check when he started buying his guns, with the record keeping created by his psychiatrist Dr. Lynne Fenton?

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    2. I wasn't asked about guns in my home....but I was just asked by the receptionist at my family doctors office, totally out of the blue, if I was a veteran, when I went in, when I got out, and if I ever served in a war zone? I did serve during the 80's, in peacetime.....but this lady had a form she was filling out to send to somebody?

      Looks to me like they are going to target recent combat vets especially....maybe they can call them crazy and take their weapons away or commit them, or just know where they're all at if the SHTF.

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  9. I think it is funny when a website such as snopes calls out blatant lies that all of a sudden" its left wing" or "liberal trash". Got any other excuses? I have been to the doctor quite a bit lately...I am a veteran and served overseas in a combat zone. I have never been asked this question or seen it on a questionaire. I am a gun owner and a 2nd ammendment supporter. What I am not: someone who spreads lies and fantasy in an effort to promote fear in people to illicit a certain reaction.

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    1. I cannot personally state that every doctor is following this procedure. Maybe some are resisting. I provided additional details about Obama's 23 Executive Orders on gun control. (see my reply on January 24, 2013 above) The people who commented here all said they had the same experience that I had. My wife's doctor asked me the question. It was not on a form, it was verbal. And it took me by surprise.

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  10. My friends said they were asked this at there doctor office...they refused to answer..
    I my self if asked will leave the doctors office and find one who is not on the left wing program!
    If asked and told I will lose my ins. I will lose my ins. If evry American follows this will stop the insulting act of data bashing ....

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  11. My daughter WAS asked this question. She lives in Connecticut. I have not, and will not. The real shame in this matter is that some people feel it doesn't really matter if they do. I just hope the day doesn't come when they realize if they don't own a gun, they wish they had.

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