Mandatory Health Appointments for Folks in NYC?
The New York Daily News printed an article this week stating the NYC Health Department, in association with everybody’s favorite nanny: Mayer Bloomberg, is going to be rolling out an initiative to schedule health appointments for citizens. From the original article:
Not sure if it’s time to get your blood pressure checked? Don’t worry, the city will tell you.
The city is launching a program Monday that will determine when patients are due for health care services – like blood pressure and cholesterol checks – and then call them to schedule an appointment.
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“It’s not a post card that says, ‘You’re overdue.’ It’s making the call and asking ‘What day works best for you?’” said Amanda Parsons, assistant health commissioner for primary care.
Getting your body checked out regularly by a doctor is a good thing. I’m a huge supporter of that idea, but you simply can’t legislate the good behavior in people. Say Joe the plumber (remember him?) gets called to schedule an appointment. He sets one up, shows up on time and gets all the blood work done, and it comes back too high. Now what? If Joe doesn’t take some initiative to start eating right and working out, nothing that the Health Department has done is going to matter. Not to mention the wasted tax payer’s money.
What’s going to have to happen, for this plan to make any sense, is for the health department to schedule follow-up appointments with progressive benchmarks in place. Meaning, if his blood pressure, or cholesterol, or whatever, hasn’t improved since the initial test you can fine him, incarcerate him… or do whatever it is you pro-government liberals want to do as punishment.
I have a few questions about this whole concept that need some answers:
What happens if you don’t want to go?
By what means is the health department obtaining your medical records, and is this even legal?
What if the people being scheduled don’t have health insurance, who pays for them?
I think these questions deserve answers.