I am 100% in favor of being as transparent as possible and providing people the data they may need to make healthy decisions. My point was simply that the legislative branch of the government should not legislate the practice of medicine, whether it’s public health or medical interventions. Although it makes sense that providing people with calorie information at the point of purchase, what if it does something counterintuitive to our minds and actually causes us to eat more calories? What if the legislative branch mandated that all women over 50 receive hormone replacement therapy? Or get mammograms? Or men have PSA tests? Or we all must take Lipitor? 

The legislation says that health insurance companies must reimburse free of charge for all Grade A and B recommendations from the USPSTF. Check your recommendations here. While I support these kinds of recommendations…Congress shouldn’t be doing the job of the USPSTF.

Population health statistics are very tricky. Recommendations often change. What do we do about laws that had good medical intentions but were found to later harm the population?