And exactly what does “voluntary” mean?

An article warning of an Obamacare provision for “forced” home visits by government agents got me pretty worked up earlier.

I was hoping it was untrue or exaggerated, so I Googled some of the claims made, and was hardly reassured.

Snopes labels the report “FALSE,” and claimed that the home visits would be made by state and not federal bureaucrats, and would be voluntary.

Others argue that it would not be voluntary:

However, Kent Masterson Brown, a constitutional attorney who has litigated in cases where healthcare is affected by government involvement believes that the program is not voluntary. Brown believes that these inspections will tread on the rights on many Americans.

“The eligible entity receiving the grant for performing the home visits is to identify the individuals to be visited and intervene so as to meet the improvement benchmarks,” said Brown, speaking at a South Carolina subcommittee hearing.  “A homeschooling family, for instance, may be subject to ‘intervention’ in ‘school readiness’ and ‘social-emotional developmental indicators.’ A farm family may be subject to ‘intervention’ in order to ‘prevent child injuries.’ The sky is the limit.”

An email was sent to the HRSA regarding the Family Check-Up; however, no response was received.

These are the categories:

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HSS) recognizes high-risk categories as:

  1. Eligible families who reside in communities in need of such services.
  2. Low-income eligible families.
  3. Eligible families who are pregnant women who have not attained age 21.
  4. Eligible families that have a history of child abuse or neglect or have had interactions with child welfare services.
  5. Eligible families that have a history of substance abuse or need substance abuse treatment.
  6. Eligible families that have users of tobacco products in the home.
  7. Eligible families that are or have children with low student achievement.
  8. Eligible families with children with developmental delays or disabilities.
  9. Eligible families with individuals who are serving, or formerly served, in the Armed Forces.

So, if someone in the household allegedly smokes or chews tobacco, government agents want to be able to knock on the door and conduct a voluntary home visit? For what purpose? To dragoon someone into treatment that he or she may not want?

And what happens if the family is not intimidated by government bureaucrats asking if they will let them in? Will that be reported to CPS as a “non-cooperating” family?

This is big government nanny statism on steroids.

 


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7 responses to “And exactly what does “voluntary” mean?”

  1. Veeshir Avatar

    Snopes is absolutely unreliable on anything even remotely political.

    They do pretty well on urban legends, but once their chosen political party is made to look bad, they’re there to try to ‘fix’ it.

  2. sarareilly Avatar
    sarareilly

    It’s voluntary, just like filing your tax return. You can choose to either go along with them or choose to see your children in foster care. Stalin would be proud.

  3. Simon Avatar

    Lucky me. I qualify on at least two counts. Tobacco use and former military.

  4. Neil Avatar
    Neil

    No sweat, Simon. You don’t have hostages…errrr…children in the house.

  5. Joseph Hertzlinger Avatar

    Wouldn’t being forced to have government agents in the house be a violation of the 3rd and 4th amendments?

  6. SDN Avatar
    SDN

    Probably a 5th Amendment violation lurking in there somewhere.

    This job should become the most dangerous one in the entire government.

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