Dr. Richard Sobel, a research fellow at Harvard Law School said, "What ID numbers do is centralize power, and in a time when knowledge is power, then centralized information is centralized power. I think people have a gut sense that this is not a good idea."

Few people today can trust the IRS, the VA, or any of those alphabet agencies with private information. National security agencies can barely keep a secret. And insurance companies are already trading information. If they have your Social Security number, they can virtually look up the entire gamut of information about you. This national id card system would just makes things easier for HMO's to get together and deny claims. Or maybe the information gets back to people in the town you live. The banker finds out that you had a heart attack and they don't want to give you a loan because of it. In 1996, a Medicaid clerk in Maryland tapped into a computerized database and sold patient names to an HMO for as little as 50 cents each. About one-third of all Fortune 500 companies review health information before making hiring decisions.

Phyllis Schlafly points out, "Allowing the government to collect and store personal medical records, and to track us as we move about in our daily lives, puts awesome power in the hands of government bureaucrats. It gives them the power to force us to conform to government health care policy, whether that means mandating that all children be immunized with an AIDS vaccine when it is put on the market, or mandating that expensive medical treatment must be withheld from seniors. Once all medical records are computerized with unique identifiers such as Social Security numbers, an instant check system will give all government agencies the power to deny basic services, including daycare, school, college, access to hospital emergency rooms, health insurance, a driver's license, etc., to those who don't conform to government health policies."

While it is easy to give in to the rhetoric of "protecting" children or some other defenseless group, we must be cautious that in a rush to provide protection in the short-term, we do not do permanent damage to our national heritage of liberty. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, those who would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserves neither liberty nor security.