In plain English: Over the next five years, the Obama administration intends to create a federally run electronic exchange that includes every American's "medical history and problems lists."

Now, before you run out to the nearest federal office and sign up to put the "medical history and problems" lists for yourself, your spouse and your children into the government's "nationwide health information technology infrastructure," you should know the law does not require you -- as an individual -- to do this.

The "explanatory statement" for Division A explains this. "To the extent that this section calls the national coordinator to ensure that every person in the United States have an EHR by 2014, this goal is not intended to require individuals to receive services from providers that have electronic health records and is aimed at having the national coordinator takes steps to help providers adopt electronic health records," says the explanation. "This provision does not constitute a legal requirement on any patient to have an electronic health record."

But if the national coordinator cannot make you -- an individual -- submit your records to the system, how is the poor guy going get "an electronic health record for each person in the United States by 2014"?

This mystery created by 139 pages in Division A is solved by the 77 pages in Division B: The secretary of health and human services is given a carrot and stick to make doctors and hospitals create EHRs for their patients. Doctors and hospitals that make "meaningful use" of EHRs by the deadline get bonus payments from Medicare. Those that do not get diminishing Medicare payments.

What is "meaningful use"? That is at the discretion of the secretary of HHS, but the law says it will include "electronic prescribing," "the electronic exchange of health information to improve the quality of health care" and submitting information "on such clinical quality measures and such other measures as selected by the secretary."

Lastly, the law directs the secretary to ratchet up the "meaningful use" test as time goes on. Or as the "explanation" politely puts it: "The secretary would seek to improve the use of electronic health records and health care quality by requiring more stringent measures of meaningful use over time."

In other words, once the secretary has your medical file in the system, he is supposed to make your doctor do ever more with it at his command.