Obama Asks Doctors to Help Deal With Guns
According to a background briefer provided by the White House, President Barack Obama is asking doctors to help deal with guns. Here's the relevant passage:
PRESERVE THE RIGHTS OF HEALTH CARE PROVIDERS TO PROTECT THEIR PATIENTS AND COMMUNITIES FROM GUN VIOLENCE: We should never ask doctors and other health care providers to turn a blind eye to the risks posed by guns in the wrong hands.
?‚· Clarify that no federal law prevents health care providers from warning law enforcement authorities about threats of violence: Doctors and other mental health professionals play an important role in protecting the safety of their patients and the broader community by reporting direct and credible threats of violence to the authorities. But there is public confusion about whether federal law prohibits such reports about threats of violence. The Department of Health and Human Services is issuing a letter to health care providers clarifying that no federal law prohibits these reports in any way.
?‚· Protect the rights of health care providers to talk to their patients about gun safety: Doctors and other health care providers also need to be able to ask about firearms in their patients’ homes and safe storage of those firearms, especially if their patients show signs of certain mental illnesses or if they have a young child or mentally ill family member at home. Some have incorrectly claimed that language in the Affordable Care Act prohibits doctors from asking their patients about guns and gun safety. Medical groups also continue to fight against state laws attempting to ban doctors from asking these questions. The Administration will issue guidance clarifying that the Affordable Care Act does not prohibit or otherwise regulate communication between doctors and patients, including about firearms.
Sarah Palin predicted what we have seen this week, the tie to health care and gun control, and she said it in 2009.
This is what Governor Palin said on August 1, 2009:
“And by the way… On health care issues going on in D.C. right now? Be wary when some kind of tie-in occurs; Because it will come up: A tie-in with guns in an attempt to take away our Second Amendment rights under the guise of some new health care plan – You know that this is coming – That the two issues will somehow crop up and they’ll be tied together. So we have to be very wary on this.” ~ Governor Sarah Palin, August 1, 2009 Anchorage, Alaska
Read the full report by Phil Schreier on NRAblog.com. Thanks to Facebook friend Laurie Guthrie