Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1996. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
The Miami Herald, Inc.; Thursday, September 19, 1996
Herald Staff
Unfortunately, diseases and accidents carry stigma and bitter consequences beyond the mere ailment. Add to that the deep-rooted preference of many people to keep private the personal details of their lives, and one should have the makings of a rebellion against the health-indexing provision of the recently passed Kennedy-Kassebaum bill. The index was debated in committee but received little note elsewhere. The index would not contain personal records but would provide coded links to local records for each individual. In theory, access would be limited to doctors, insurers, police with warrants, and others deemed to have a need to know. This system would give physicians more complete medical histories than now available for many patients in this mobile society. It also could help researchers track diseases.
In theory, too, the handling of medical records would be far more secure than now. That would be a huge relief: Human error and deviousness have turned medical privacy into a great Swiss cheese.
This system, though, has the potential to remove the last vestige of privacy. Why would a doctor plastering up your broken femur need to know about an old case of genital warts? What about the insurance company paying for the broken leg? (Or even the Jacksonville 13-year-old who used her mother's computer at the hospital and called several patients to tell them, falsely, that they had a positive HIV test?)
Good intentions are simply not enough. Americans should demand the right to control their own health records and to keep them from this overreaching system. Congress should permit that choice or else abandon this scary plan.
Published by: The Miami Herald, Inc.; a Knight Ridder publication. One Herald Plaza, Miami, FL 33132-1693
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