Health Privacy Threats: Exposed!

ST. PAUL, Minn.—On Thursday, September 11, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF, http://www.cchfreedom.org) marked its 20th anniversary of preserving patient-centered health care and protecting patient and privacy rights while also looking to the future of the country’s health care system.

Twila Brase, president and co-founder of CCHF, welcomed guests to the Minneapolis Marriott Northwest for the organization’s 20th Anniversary Dinner event, titled “Obamacare: Making Repeal a Reality.” Celebrating two decades of health freedom efforts, CCHF joined with keynote speaker Stephen F. Hayes of FOX News to reflect on the past, present and future of health care.

At the event, Brase brought to focus the very real possibility of the repeal of the problem-ridden government health care system, Obamacare, which compromises care, puts patients’ private medical data at risk, ties the hands of doctors and nurses, and takes more money out of the pockets of hard-working Americans.

“Some people think Obamacare cannot be repealed, but my view is that the day of repeal is coming,” Brase said. “Already, Obamacare exchanges are imploding because of costs. And the four lawsuits on Obamacare subsidies could blow the entire exchange infrastructure out of the water. Once the real costs of Obamacare-priced coverage are unveiled in 2017, politicians will be running for cover.

“We must be ready for that day,” she continued. “The demise of Obamacare and its repeal will be one of the greatest stories in America’s long history of freedom. So don’t give up. The tyranny that is Obamacare will not be able to permanently embed itself into our populist soil.”

Brase also shared several highlights of CCHF’s 20-year history:

1996: CCHF helped secure a better privacy law in Minnesota than the so-called federal HIPAA “privacy” rule.

1998: CCHF was invited to testify against the proposed HIPAA National Patient ID. The hearing caused a political firestorm and to date, the National ID does not exist.

2001: CCHF stopped the Minnesota health department from being able to examine, vaccinate, treat and extract body samples from citizens against their will.

2003: CCHF discovered that the Minnesota Department of Health was secretly storing, using and sharing newborn DNA without any legal authority and without parental consent. The CCHF team secured an opt-out law but didn’t settle there. Ongoing efforts led to two successful parent lawsuits, one in Minnesota and one in Texas, and to informed written parental consent requirements in Minnesota, Texas and Oklahoma. Recent developments regarding baby DNA, however, prove that the battle is not over.

2004: CCHF forced the state legislature to undo a law that allowed the Minnesota Department of Health to issue treatment protocols and control the practice of medicine.

2007: CCHF secured the consent requirement on all Minnesota clinic and hospital forms regarding permission to access to patients’ medical records electronically through the state’s record locator service.

2007-08: CCHF stopped a Minnesota health insurance exchange bill, and again in 2011-12, stopped the Obamacare exchange bill. Only when Democrats took charge in 2013 was CCHF unable to stop it. Now, Minn. Gov. Mark Dayton is calling the MNsure exchange his “biggest disappointment.”

2012: CCHF stopped the Obamacare exchange in Wisconsin. After urging Gov. Scott Walker to publicly commit to no exchange, CCHF provided him with a document showing more than $1 million dollars had been spent to build it. Within a week, his office publicly declared that Wisconsin would not establish an exchange.

2013: CCHF released a 50-state health surveillance report on state government tracking of children with birth defects, individuals with vaccinations, people diagnosed with cancer and children who are tested by the state newborn genetic screening program.

2014: CCHF denounced the federal government biosurveillance initiative, which will use electronic medical records to track all Americans under the guise of national security. The efforts made headlines on the Drudge Report, and Brase was interviewed on the subject by Fox News.

During her address, Brase asked attendees to think about where they might be without the efforts of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom.

“The state health department would be telling doctors how to practice medicine,” she said. “Baby DNA storage, use and sharing would still be a state secret. Minnesota would have had a government exchange in 2007. Minnesota would be under the NO-privacy HIPAA rule. MNsure and Obamacare would have more enrollees. People all over the country would still be signing HIPAA forms at the clinic rather than refusing to sign them as federal law permits and as we suggest because of the 2.2 million entities with which HIPAA allows information to be shared. There would be no daily Health Freedom Minute on radio stations across the country. And the public would be unaware of and therefore unable to counter the many violations of privacy and ethics taking place today in health care.

“Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom is dedicated to protecting your health freedom,” she continued. “We aim to preserve a wedge of health freedom in America that will grow as patients and doctors look for a way out of the current system of managed care controls, redistribution of incomes, sweeping privacy intrusions, corporate complicity and the impersonal and unethical standardization of medical treatment. We focus on policy, not party. We work with anyone who supports freedom and protection of our constitutional rights and against anyone who doesn’t.”

At the banquet, Hayes discussed the repeal of Obamacare in the context of the 2014 mid-term elections, recent and pending court action on the government health care system, and the charged political atmosphere surrounding a law that continues to remain unpopular with the public nearly five years after its enactment.

Hayes is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard and a FOX News Contributor on the network’s signature news broadcast, “Special Report with Bret Baier.” He is also the author of the New York Times bestseller, “Cheney: The Untold Story of America’s Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President.” His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Reason, National Review and many other publications.

The emcee for the event was Mark Korin, Mayor for the City of Oak Grove, Minn., and the CEO of an engineering and manufacturing company in Ramsey, now employing more than 30 employees. During his time as Mayor, Korin helped cut city taxes 33 percent over four years by bringing private-sector business values into city operations.

Over the past 20 years, CCHF has been a champion for important causes such as the protection of newborn baby DNA, a “Refuse to Enroll” campaign to steer Americans away from enrolling in Obamacare, the creation of a report on mutual aid societies as an alternative to government health care, efforts to uncover the dangers of electronic medical records, and the task of informing and educating Americans on the HIPAA “grand deception,” which promises to protect them but really hurts their health care rights and privacy. Brase has also testified at numerous government hearings on health care issues and been interviewed by media around the country.

Brase said funds raised at the dinner for 2015 will uphold the ethical, private and individualized practice of medicine and advance CCHF’s vision of securing health freedom for all. CCHF has not accepted any government funding over its two decades in existence and relies on private funding from donors and grants.

Celebrating its 20th year, Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom is a patient-centered national health freedom organization based in St. Paul, Minn. CCHF exists to protect health care choices and patient privacy. CCHF sponsors the daily, 60-second radio feature, Health Freedom Minute, which airs on more than 150 stations nationwide on the American Family Radio Network and 90-plus stations on the Bott Radio Network. Listeners can learn more about the agenda behind proposed health care initiatives and steps they can take to protect their health care choices, rights and privacy.

CCHF president and co-founder Twila Brase, R.N., has been called one of the “100 Most Powerful People in Health Care” and one of “Minnesota’s 100 Most Influential Health Care Leaders.” Brase, a public health nurse, has been interviewed by CNN, Fox News, Minnesota Public Radio, NBC Nightly News, NBC’s Today Show, NPR, New York Public Radio, the Associated Press, Modern Healthcare, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The Washington Times, among others. She is at the forefront of informing the public of crucial health issues, such as intrusive wellness and prevention initiatives in Obamacare, patient privacy, informed consent, the dangers of “evidence-based medicine” and the implications of state and federal health care reform.