Updated at 12:00 noon.
Did you know the Affordable Care Act stands up for gun rights?聽 The “Protection of Second Amendment Gun Rights” section says the health law’s wellness programs can’t require participants to give information about guns in the house. It also keeps the Department of Health and Human Services from collecting data on gun use and stops insurance companies from denying coverage or raising premiums on members because of gun use.
The massacre in Newtown, Conn., renews the controversy about whether gun violence is a public health issue. Should聽health authorities view guns in the same category as pneumonia聽and car crashes?聽The debate has been going on for years, with epidemiologists聽arguing聽firearms can kill just as many as a bad flu season and gun-rights advocates viewing any attention from聽public health officials聽as a聽step toward gun confiscation — the beginning of the end of the Second Amendment.
The ACA language, which does not prohibit doctors from inquiring about guns in the household, was included at the request of Nevada Democrat Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate majority leader and a聽gun rights supporter.聽Reid’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
The language was inserted after the act cleared the Senate Finance Committee and before it was voted on by the full Senate.
The National Rifle Association did not respond to a request for comment.
Public health scholars聽criticize the measure because they say it keeps聽doctors and nurses from doing their jobs. 聽While the law doesn鈥檛 ban doctors from asking about guns, it places limits on what information caregivers can record. Health pros fear physicians will avoid the topic altogether, inhibiting a full conversation about firearms hazards.
“A lot of people buy guns every year, and it’s a health concern,” said ,聽professor of social policy at the University of Pennsylvania. “For physicians and other health care professionals not聽to be able to ask about these issues and聽record them is counterproductive.” Doctors ask patients about illegal drug use, disease history and sexual habits, Sorenson聽said. Why not guns? “To regulate what the provider can or can’t do really intrudes into the role of the health care provider,” she added, “which is to ensure the health of the individual and the people who are living in that home.”
But some聽think聽firearms聽in your closet are none of a doctor’s business. Marion Hammer, a former NRA president and聽lobbyist for the group in Florida, last month that people don’t take their children to the doctor聽“for聽political dialogue or for pediatricians to ask us not to exercise a constitutional right.”
She聽was referring to a Florida law that limits聽conversations doctors can have with patients about guns. Last summer U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Cooke from enforcing the statute, saying it restricted free speech.
The Connecticut massacre has also renewed criticism of Congress’s decision years ago to聽defund research on guns and public health by the Centers for Disease Control.
“We are in an environment when children are dying and we are playing political games,”聽Dr. David Satcher, who was director of the CDC in the 1990s, .
