By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist A proposed new rule by Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) which would give the government unfettered access to health records on every single citizen is being called as an excessive power grab that will result in giving the government "undue power over life-and-death medical decisions."

According to a recent op-ed in The Washington Examiner by Congressman Tim Huelskamp (R-KS), the proposed new rule would force insurance companies to "submit detailed health care information about their patients" to the federal government for "comparison" purposes.

The HHS is proposing three paths to obtain this sensitive information, Huelskamp describes. "A 'centralized approach' wherein insurers' data go directly to Washington; an 'intermediate state-level approach' in which insurers give the information to the 50 states; or a 'distributed approach' in which health insurance companies crunch the numbers according to federal bureaucrat edict."

The government claims it needs these records in order to compare performance.

"No matter what the explanation is, however, this type of data collection is an egregious violation of patient-doctor confidentiality and business privacy," Huelskamp writes. "It is like J. Edgar Hoover in a lab coat."

Steven Mosher, president of the pro-life Population Research Institute (PRI),  agrees.

"This rule openly paves the way for the government to control our medical lives in every respect," Mosher said. "It would open up the possibility of the government interfering in every medical decision we make, from end-of-life care to abortion. It is imperative that we stop such a rule before it has a chance to strip every American naked in front of the government."

He also warns that the rule "should be of grave concern to all pro-life groups out there, since it touches at the very core of our basic medical privacies. We at PRI insist that Washington keept its hands off the private parts of our medical records."

Rep. Huelskamp is planning to take action to either stop or at least alter the rule in order to protect the privacy of Americans.

"With its extensive rule-making decrees, ObamaCare has been an exercise in creating authority out of thin air at the expense of individuals' rights, freedoms, and liberties," he said.

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