subject: Health Care Reform And National Id Cards [print this page] Recently passed health care reform (HC bill) raises a variety of issues regarding personal privacy and government intrusion into peoples' lives.
For instance:
Page 58 contains the following statement: Government will have real-time access to individuals' finance & a National ID Health card will be issued.
Page 59 contains the following statement: Government will have direct access to your bank accounts for elective funds transfer.
Exploring the text, it's not difficult figure out that the government intrusion is implied. Now you ask, to what extent.
I grew up under communism, or rather witnessed the transition from a normal society to communism. It was not pleasant, understandably. The country was Romania, population of 23 million, shortly after it fell under Soviet control.
Granted, communism was extreme in its police powers.
The present authoritarian presidency along with a like Congress makes it somehow worrisome and we must be ready for the consequences.
The following is dependent on my experience, while growing up.
Growing up under communism and National ID Card
There is much talk in this country about a national ID card to be played with by government entities, to manage various programs, including illegal immigration, health care, criminals, etc. I am dismayed how naive people supporting this concept are, and for a good purpose. They haven't yet witnessed the potential misuse of it, especially when the government has too much power.
The moment the communists took hold of power, what's your opinion one thing they did?
They implemented a mandatory national ID card. The communists believed in the very idea of building a new society for the People. People to them were the poor, oppressed and the trodden.
The communist motto states: In case you are not with Me, You Are My Enemy. In case you are my enemy, you must be marginalized or destroyed.
This was the essence of the ID card. The communist government wants to know its enemy, where the enemy lives, and above all, marginalize the enemy by controlling its movements. Guess who the potential enemy is? You the individual are the potential enemy!
Here is the same concept our government uses today to screen all the airline boarding passengers.
The ID card was adopted by Stalin in the Soviet Union and copied by all the Eastern European Countries, once under Soviet / Communist control.
In summary, the ID card did not use something equivalent with Ssn. It weren't required to. It was a simple card, like a small passport. It had the name, age and above all, the residence address.
The communists declared all cities: Closed City arbitrarily.
This government decree required an official approval for anyone trying to relocate from one town to another, even while changing jobs. In fact, changing jobs i imagined would be licensed by the government since it owned the enterprises providing the jobs. Every individual was a government employee whether you worked for a bakery, chocolate factory or for the army.
When you traveled and spend the night in a different city you had to attend the police station in person and report where you were staying that night, in case you stayed with relatives or friends. The hotels handled that for you. There were police street blocks at night inspecting the ID cards. If you didn't have an ID card, you were arrested. Police never reported these arrests to the family. You just disappeared - for years.
Stalin used the ID card to the fullest. He conscripted educated managers, engineers, doctors, and sent them to the non-Russian speaking Soviet Union nations hoping to annihilate and control the local cultures and its people. Think Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan even Ukraine. They were forced to exist in these places for around five years. They could not quit and leave, because the ID card would not let them apply for another job in a different city. The government had full control of each and all individuals even in a large country like Soviet Union.
