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By Jeff, on February 4th, 2011%
A couple of days ago, the State Senate Press Office released a press release from new State Senator (and former State Representative) Buddy Carter saying that he was introducing a “Patient Safety Act”. The bill has in deed been introduced, and is known as SB 36. It too, as many other bills of importance to the Big Government Party, has a House clone, HB 184.
For the two years that I have actively watched the Assembly, this idea has been proposed and defeated – so often that I now refer to this proposal as the “Zombie Bill” because it just. won’t. die.
Doing some research on it, I actually went back to last Session and read the bills for the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, both HB 614 that we Georgia political bloggers had a hand in defeating, as well as HB 273 – which happened to have as its primary cosponsor one State Rep Buddy Carter and which never made it out of Committee. It was also known at the time as SB 248, and even though it had some hefty political backing in the Senate, it never made it out of Committee there. See what I mean about the clone bills and why I refer to this one as the Zombie Bill? We killed this thing three times and it KEEPS coming back!
Couple of points here: In my own reading of each of these five bills, I fail to see any significant difference between them. None. Meaning that the arguments made for the past two years still stand, including this somewhat famous speech by then State Senator Preston Smith on the Floor of the Senate in 2009:
Next, in an email response to some questions about SB 36, Senator Carter says (emphasis mine, as usual):
In response to your questions- yes this is essentially the same bill as the prescription monitoring bill. We are calling it the patient safety act because we feel it better represents the bill and unfortunately, prescription monitoring carries negative connotations for some people.
In other words, Senator Carter openly admits to being deceiving in renaming a bill to ease its passage, claiming “it better represents” a bill nearly exactly identical to the bill previously known as the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act.
For more information about the Prescription Drug Monitoring Act, please see the following links or simply Google the term on your own.
Senators Reintroduce Prescription Drug Monitoring Act
Prescription Drug Database Battle Rages
Georgia Legislature Goes After Your Right to Privacy
Government Database For Cold Remedies Nearer
By Jeff, on March 31st, 2009%
HB 614, the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program that Jason Pye and I warned you about yesterday and I asked you to call your Senator about has FAILED in the Senate by a vote of 25-29-1-1. Senator Steve Thompson (D-Marietta) did not vote on the measure and Senator Ross Tolleson (R-Perry) was excused.
Of the local delegation, only Senator John Bulloch(R-Ochlocknee) voted against the measure. Senators John Crosby (R-Tifton), George Hooks (D-Americus), and Freddie Sims (D-Albany) all voted for the measure.
I was watching the debate and had the live download going, so I hope to be able to post video of the debate soon, as Senator Preston Smith (R-Rome) did an AMAZING job speaking against this measure, both when questioning the measure’s sponsor – who happens to be Senator David Shafer (R-Duluth), who is running to be your next Lt Governor – and when in the well speaking on his own.
Indeed, one particularly insightful quote from Senator Smith was this:
“We are at the end of the day, the guardians of liberty for our citizens.”
The problem is this: The following Senators chose NOT to guard our liberty, and instead voted to allow the State to monitor even further and more obtrusively your private medical decisions:
[Continue Reading]
By Jeff, on March 30th, 2009%
The following is from my good friend and colleague Jason Pye via his blog, JasonPye.com: (Note here that ‘tomorrow’ refers to TODAY, Monday, March 30 2009, as this post was written last night.)
Tomorrow, the Georgia Senate Rules Committee, and possibly the entire Georgia Senate, will consider HB 614, the “Georgia Prescription Monitoring Program Act” which would establish a state surveillance system for the monitoring of prescribing and dispensing of certain medications (Schedules II, III, IV, or V). Included in the database would be most pain relievers, anxiety medications, sleep aids, anti-diarrheals, and anything containing Codeine such as Robitussin.
This bill is bad social and fiscal policy and it violates the privacy and due process rights of Georgia citizens enumerated in the Georgia Constitution.
This bill is bad social policy because it allows government intrusion and second-guessing of the doctor-patient relationship. It treats Georgia citizens not as civilized people but as children who need to be monitored and controlled.
Also, as noted by the American Cancer Society, several studies indicate that prescription monitoring programs have a “chilling effect” on healthcare professionals’ prescribing of needed medication to legitimate pain patients for fear of being investigated by law enforcement.
This law is also bad fiscal policy. Once the initial federal funding for this program has run out, Georgia citizens will be left to foot the bill, which the U.S. Dept. of Justice estimates to cost the state up to $1 million annually. In our current economic crisis, this is not only fiscally irresponsible, it is downright immoral. Moreover, this program will not withstand judicial scrutiny and a lawsuit in its defense will cost the taxpayers that much more money.
This bill also violates the privacy and due process rights of Georgia citizens. It gives the Georgia Drugs and Narcotics Agency access to the private medical records of Georgia citizens without probable cause.
Under Georgia law, no law enforcement official can lawfully obtain any part of a Georgia citizen’s medical record without first obtaining the patient’s consent or a court order, such as a search warrant or a subpoena. In Johnson v. State, the Georgia Court of Appeals held that “the State is not entitled to exercise indiscriminate subpoena power as an investigative substitute for procedural devices otherwise available to it in the criminal context, such as a search warrant.”
In King v. State, the Georgia Supreme Court reiterated that “In this state, privacy is considered a fundamental constitutional right and is ‘recognized as having a value so essential to individual liberty in our society that [its] infringement merits careful scrutiny by the courts.’” It also noted that “[p]ermitting the State unlimited access to medical records for the purposes of prosecuting the patient would have the highly oppressive effect of chilling the decision of any and all Georgians to seek medical treatment.”
There are alternative, much more reasonable methods of accomplishing the same ends of this legislation without the egregious constitutional violations of this bill’s means. Please stand up for our privacy and due process rights. Please do not pave the way for Orwell’s big-government 1984. Please vote “NO” on HB 614.
This is a very well written piece that says everything I would have thought to say and more. I’m going to add a ‘SWGA Politics feel’ to it with this, and I close:
Because of everything Jason just said, I must most strenuously OPPOSE this measure.
HB 614: OPPOSE
Call or email your Senator NOW.
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