Augustin - ObamaCare went "above & beyond" the ARRA '09. Some time back, I saw a Youtube video of a Congressional hearing where some politician was railing against HealtCare.gov. In his statements, he said that despite the site claiming to be HIPPA-compliant, buried in the code was text stating that users had "no expectation of privacy".
JTHunter and all,
Very true, Obamacare did further erode the last traces of medical privacy. This was discussed many times in the mainstream media and was all over the internet. It is a common tool of tyranny to use multiple laws to cover the same thing in case one law is challenged or overturned.
You may remember when Congressman Joe Barton of Texas was all over TV claiming that a line of source code embedded in the software of the Obamacare website violated HIPAA. During a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Barton grilled Cheryl Campbell of CGI Federal (the key contractor responsible for building the Healthcare.gov website) saying, “How in the world can this website be HIPAA-compliant when HIPAA is designed to protect the patient’s privacy?”
Barton continued to hammer the woman - who probably doesn’t know a HIPAA from a hippo - adding, “You know it’s not HIPAA compliant; admit it. You’re under oath. Your company is the company that put this together. We’re telling every American... that you sign up for this or even attempt to, you have no expectation of privacy. That is a direct contradiction of HIPAA and you know it.”
Then there was the big debate about whether or not Obamacare REQUIRED doctors to ask their patients about gun ownership. Despite many freedom-oriented website's claim that it did, it eventually came out that this was NOT true.
So in January 2013 Obama signed 23 Executive Actions that were intended to reduce gun violence. One of them was to "clarify that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit doctors asking their patients about guns in their homes."
http://foxnewsinsider.com/2013/01/16/read-full-list-of-23-gun-violence-reduction-executive-actions/
In response to Obama's EO and also because of widespread concerns by gun owners that computerized medical records might be used to collect and information about gun ownership, my state of Montana passed a new law - MCA 50-16-108 - that prohibits doctors and other health care providers from asking patients questions about gun ownership, possession or use. This new law only allows doctors to ask a patient if they are in possession of a firearm at the time of treatment.
http://www.activistpost.com/2013/09/montana-health-care-privacy-becomes.html
The bill reads,
"50-16-108. Privacy in health care -- ownership of firearms. (1) No health care provider or health care facility may:
(a) refuse to provide health care to a person because the person declines to answer any questions concerning the person's ownership, possession, or use of firearms; or
(b) inquire about a person's ownership, possession, or use of firearms as a condition of receiving health care.
(2) For the purposes of this section:
(a) the terms "health care", "health care facility", and "health care provider" have the meanings provided in 50-16-504; and
(b) the term "possession" does not apply to the presence of a firearm on the person of a patient at the time of treatment."