OT: Feds want to drop protection of privacy regarding medical data

[Marvin Dickens]

On Fri, 22 Mar 2002 11:57:58 -0600
Stuart Biggerstaff <biggers at lindahall.org> wrote:

> I don't really know the details (and don't really want to defend W.--or the 
> health insurance industry), but I'm not sure I can see this as a big 
> threat.  I think most of the people involved have seen seeking treatment 
> and seeking payment for treatment as "prior approval" for release of 
> information as needed, but the courts have often not seen it that way.

Hi Stuart!

Perhaps you have not considered why the insurance industry wants these records...It's not so much the information that is available now, but the information that will be available through genetic testing for physical diseases, mental health diseases and such. Genetic testing for diseases will, in most instances, eliminate the use of statistics to calculate who you want to insure and who you do not want to insure. Imagine, if you will a world where you purchase health insurance and the insurance company tells you they will cover all aspects of you health until the year 2015, when they will no longer insure you for carcenoma melanoma because, sometime during the years 2015 to 1016 you going to develope the disease. This affects the entire insurance industy... Life insurance, home owners insurance and etc. 

The insurance industry is in essence positioning themselves to have access to gentic testing information that will start to be available in the next 5 to 10 years. This is very Orwellian.


Best

Peck