"Page 58" refers to HR 3200, the House version of the health care bill. (Link to text below)

Page 58 has been cited as establishing a "national ID card" in emails being circulated with the intent of undercutting the bill.

What it actually describes is a "health plan beneficiary identification card", which is precisely what nearly everybody who already has health insurance is already carrying around in their wallet. It's in the context of a passage for electronic standards for health care administrative transactions. It is NOT a national ID card or establish any national database. It does not make the card mandatory, even for people who have health insurance, though carrying the card would make it faster for a doctor to tell if you're covered and result in more efficient health care delivery.

As with so much else in the emails going around, nearly everything in it is misinterpreted to the point of being a fabrication. Which is too bad, because there is actually much in the bill that merits real discussion. Instead, we have paranoid deliberate misinterpretations designed to scare people rather than foster actual debate.
Source(s):
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&am...


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