By now, regular readers of these pages know how the combination of “public health” and socialized medicine team up to wreak havoc on personal freedom. Government is simultaneously expanding the Medicare and Medicaid entitlements while increasing its power to police our personal lives for bad habits, almost always under excuse that unhealthy habits “cost taxpayers money.” One feeds off the other. Socialize medicine a bit more, and it gets a bit easier to justify further intrusions into our personal lives. This is why I try to advocate returning more ownership and personal responsibility to personal healthcare — with Medical Savings Accounts, for example. The only way to stop government from chipping away at our individual freedom is to take away its only real excuse for doing so — the “public costs” argument. If the only people who bear the costs of unhealthy habits are the people who hold those habits, government has no justification for regulating those habits. Unfortunately, things are still moving in the opposite direction.

That’s a long introduction for an extremely disturbing story in New York City: the city wants to require doctors to report the names of diabetic patients to city government. This would be without the consent of diabetic patients. The government would then monitor them to make sure they’re treating their condition properly.

How can the city justify such blatant disrespect for the privacy of its residents?

“Public health,” of course:

“There will be some people who will say, ‘What business of the government is it to know that my diabetes is not in control?’” said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city’s health commissioner.

The answer, he said, is that diabetes costs an estimated $5 billion a year to treat in New York and was the fourth leading cause of death in the city in 2003, killing 1,891.

By pinpointing problem patients, then intervening ever so slightly in their care, Frieden said the city can improve thousands of lives. “I don’t think we can afford not to do anything,” he said.

It’s funny, when corporations do shady things to make or save money, they’re demonized. When government trespasses all over our personal freedom in the name of saving money, it’s generally considered noble.

Diabetes isn’t communicable. There’s no legitimate public health concern, here.

One wonders what other condidtions or habits would be fit for government monitoring without consent. Obesity? Smoking? Unprotected sex?

If the only consideration is cost to taxpayers, I can’t see why those wouldn’t merit policing, too.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 at 8:36 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.