the tindog coffeehouse

Buried within the bowels of the massive $838,000,000,000 “stimulus” bill being pushed through Congress right now is a mandate for the establishment of computerized medical records, records which would include a person’s entire medical history from birth to death and which could be accessed by, well, no one knows for sure.

Billions will be handed to companies creating these databases. Billions will be handed to universities to incorporate patient databases “into the initial and ongoing training of health professionals.” There’s a mention of future “smart card functionality.” …

The databases will, “at a minimum,” include information on every American’s race and ethnicity. They will be used for “biosurveillance and public health” and “medical and clinical research,” both of which raise privacy questions. They will become part of a “nationwide system for the electronic use and exchange of health information.”

Plus, the federal government will use its vast purchasing power–think Medicare and Medicaid–to compel adoption of e-records that meet government “standards and implementation specifications.” …

The bill punishes physicians who are not “meaningful users” of a government-certified e-record database, and specifies certain procedures and information exchanges that will “satisfy” the requirement.

Starting in 2015, government reimbursements to physicians who are not participating in the federal e-record effort will begin to decline.

I’m sorry, did I miss something?  Has no one brought this up until now?  Because this seems like it’s kind of a big deal to me.  The federal government wants every American’s entire medical history to be shared in massive databases for “biosurveillance” and “medical and clinical research,” and no one is just a little uncomfortable with that?

Who can legally access these databases?  Certainly the federal government, probably the state government, along with any doctors and hospitals.  What about insurance companies?  What about your employer or potential employer?  Will credit agencies eventually want access to it to decide how much of a credit risk you are?

No one knows.

What about terrorists?  What if someone wanting to attack America was able to infiltrate these databases, destroy data or cripple the system?  How much damage would that cause?  What about hackers who figure out how to add, delete, or modify patient records?  That could easily put people’s lives in danger.  And of course, it greatly increases the danger of identity theft.

Then there’s the obvious privacy question.  Doctors and hospitals won’t be able to opt-out of the system without incurring severe penalties from the government.  But what about individuals?  Is this a voluntary opt-in option for patients or must we choose to opt-out?  Or can we opt-out?

I hate to sound alarmist, but I just don’t have any confidence in the federal government to implement something like this in a way that puts American citizens’ interests first.  Of course, one could make the valid argument they shouldn’t be implementing it at all.

But then again, we did vote for “change,” didn’t we?

Previously:
The ‘savior-based economy’