Health Care Reform and RFID Implants

I was asked yesterday if I knew that Barack Obama was planning to force people to get implantable RFID chips as part of the health care reform legislation. I never heard of such thing so I went to see for myself.This blog post is about what I found researching the topic.

The following is the text that has caught people’s attention.

“The Secretary shall establish a national medical device registry (in this subsection referred to as the ‘registry’) to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data on each device that—‘‘(A) is or has been used in or on a patient; and ‘‘(B) is a class III device; or ‘‘(ii) a class II device that is implantable.”

I’m not a lawyer by training, but I do not believe the text above is actually calling for people to have RFID chips implanted into them. The language appears to be calling for the establishment of a central database to keep track of those with class II devices, including those that are implantable. Implantable RFID technology does not yet appear to be a class II medical device though the FDA provides guidance on how it could become a class II medical device at a later date.

• See the following link (Page 4) for more on the FDA’s thinking on RFID technology: Link

The quoted text above was from H.R. 3200 (Section 2561), which was one of the several versions of health care reform legislation that House of Representatives originally considered voting on. The House of Representatives ultimately passed a bill called H.R. 3962 which included some of the items in H.R. 3200. I took a look at H.R. 3962 (Section 2571) and found that the text of the passage altered drastically.

The Secretary shall establish a national medical device registry (in this subsection referred to as the ‘registry’) to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data on each covered device. ‘(B) In this subsection, the term ‘covered device’--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink‘(i) shall include each class III device; and ‘(ii) may include, as the Secretary determines appropriate and specifies in regulation, a class II device that is life-supporting or life-sustaining.

The altered text says nothing about implantable devices, but it was the Senate version of the health care reform legislation (and soon the reconciliation bill) that is now waiting to be signed by Barack Obama into law (not H.R. 3962). I accessed the Senate reform legislation and the reconciliation bill, and the reconciliation bill contains very similar language to H.R. 3962, but with the reinsertion of the term “implantable”:

HR 4872 (Reconciliation Bill) Section 2521

‘(g)(1) The Secretary shall establish a national medical device registry (in this subsection referred to as the ‘registry’) to facilitate analysis of postmarket safety and outcomes data on each device that--‘(A) is or has been used in or on a patient; and (B) is--CommentsClose CommentsPermalink‘(i) a class III device; orCommentsClose CommentsPermalink ‘(ii) a class II device that is implantable, life-supporting, or life-sustaining.CommentsClose CommentsPermalink

However, I do not believe this passage is calling for the implantation of RFID chips into people like some may fear. I think the text is just calling for the establishment of a database for implantable medical devices that may include implantable RFID devices at a later date. At the most this text might lead to a database that could potentially later facilitate a nationwide RFID system, but I don’t see this happening at the moment.

Therefore, I do not think there is anything to worry about with regards to implantable RFID chips in the health care reform legislation. I actually do not see implantable RFID chips as being the Mark of the Beast because the Mark of the Beast is supposed to be something that can be visibly seen. A person getting a microchip would have the microchip injected inside of them leaving no visible trace of an injection on their skin.

· You can read my report about the Mark of the Beast at this link.