Obamacare Fact or Fiction? Law To Require RIFD Microchip Implants By The End Of 2013
"The New Health Care (Obama care) law H.R. 3590 Also HR 4872 requires all US citizens to... have the RIFD implanted.This evil plan is being launched by America. It's a micro chip injected in your hand. It will contain all your personal data heath and bank accounts etc. It's also a GPS device being monitored," reads an excerpt from an e-mail dated February 11, 2013.
Let's just spoil the surprise nice and early: No, Obamacare will not require you to implant a radiofrequency transponder device (RFID) microchip in your body to participate in its programs. But where did the weird rumor come from?
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The fact is, bad wording in an early draft of the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") is probably to blame for the rumor and its steady growth. A 2009 draft of the bill included provisions that could be construed to mean that people would have to get microchips implanted to participate in the program.
The relevant portion of the bill, H.R. 3590, states:
"(g)(1)The Secretary shall establish a national medical device registry (in this subsection referred to as the 'registry') to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data on each device that-
(A) is or has been used in or on a patient; and
(B) is-
(i) a class III device; or
(ii) a class II device that is implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining."
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The legislation that was passed in Congress and admittedly worded poorly does not mandate the implantation of a microchip or any other RFID device. The referenced "devices" were machines that would be used by the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services to collect data about medical devices "used in or on a patient." Think pacemakers and hip replacements, not implantable data chips.
In any case, this is just one of many rumors circulating about the Affordable Care Act. For more information on Obamacare and for some more myth debunking, you can go to ObamacareFacts.com.