Is the Senate health plan anti-gun?
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
November 24, 2009
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The Senate's 2,074-page health care bill doesn't mention guns, but some gun owners are worried certain provisions could eventually be used to discourage or even restrict gun ownership as part of a government effort to influence behavior as it broadens its control over the health care system.
The day before the Senate passed the $848 billion health bill on a party-line vote, the Virginia-based Gun Owners of America sent out a mass alert to its 300,000 members, warning them that the legislation "will most likely dump your gun-related health data into a government database. ... This includes any firearms-related information your doctor has gleaned or any determination of post traumatic stress disorder or something similar, that can preclude you from owning firearms."
The group warned that new "wellness and prevention" programs that would permit employers to offer employees lower premiums for healthier lifestyles do not include anything that would prohibit "rabidly anti-gun Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius from decreeing that 'no guns' is somehow healthier."
With no specific legislative language relating to guns, it is unlikely the issue will become a major roadblock for the bill.
But critics and gun owners have highlighted a larger concern about government interference if the legislation becomes law. The bill would expand coverage to 31 million people through subsidies and Medicaid expansion.
"There is a broader issue here," said Dave Kopel, research director of the Independence Institute of Colorado, a libertarian think tank. "The more you socialize costs, the more you empower the argument that the government has the authority to control private behavior."
Kopel pointed to the Japanese health care system, where employee waistlines are measured and those who are overweight are put into special weight loss programs, as an example of where the U.S. health care system could be headed.
And gun control could become part of it, Kopel said.
"If [the Department of Health and Human Services] can write regulations for lower premiums for healthy habits in general," Kopel said. "Then I don't see anything in the bill that stops HHS from saying people get higher premiums for unhealthy habits such as owning a gun or a handgun."
Gun Owners of America spokesman Erich Pratt said the government has already blocked gun ownership through its access to the mental health records of military veterans. If a vet is diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, his or her name is sent to a special database used to prohibit gun purchases. So far, 150,000 veterans have been denied firearms using the list, Pratt said. The Senate bill could widen government oversight of who can own a gun, he warned.
"With these mandates, it is really going to be impossible to keep our medical information out of this database," Pratt said.
Supporters of the bill said gun rights groups are trying to stir up unnecessary fear.
"It is very clear they are misreading the bill," said Igor Volsky, a health care researcher for the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. "All this bill does is define what a wellness program is. It is a broad definition, but it is not broad enough to net gun ownership."
