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As President Barack Obama prepares to address Congress tonight on the subject of health care, a new rumor is percolating through the blogosphere--that the health care reform bill would require everybody to get a microchip embedded in their body so the government can track them.
Huh? As OpenCongress.org reports, this baseless rumor "hasn’t yet received any kind of validation from a national political figure," but can be found in discussion threads here, here, here and here.
The text that people are referring to is here, in Title V, Subtitle C – “National Medical Device Registry," which establishes a medical device registry to track patients who use certain types of devices (technically known as "class III" or "class II" devices that are "implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining") as part of their medical treatment.
What sort of devices are these? Pacemakers, defibrillators, artificial hips or knees--devices that people typically don't have inserted in their bodies unless they really, really need them.
The section of H.R. 3200 in question is an attempt to improve safety tracking of these devices after they are already on the market. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has come under criticism for not doing enough to track safety problems with such devices.
In recent congressional testimony, the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) pointed out the agency lacks "objective data about device use and device-related problems," and that most often it relies on manufacturers to police themselves in deciding whether or not a product recall is needed. You can learn more about the issue by reading the testimony submitted at the hearing before the health subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
And to see more fact checking by OpenCongress.org, click here.
