Health bill could allow government access to personal financial records
By: Susan Ferrechio
Chief Congressional Correspondent
August 12, 2009
Privacy concerns are generating another round of complaints about health care legislation being considered in the House.
The bill calls for the secretary of health and human services to be able to quickly determine a person's financial responsibility and eligibility for health care services, "which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card."
The language has been long sought after by some health reform advocates who say it will enable more streamlined and effective medical care, but the words are chilling to privacy advocates who do not want the government tracking their medical history.
"That provision is extremely worrisome," said Wayne Crews, vice president for policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian think tank. "What kind of information would they collect?"
At a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pa., residents were wondering the same thing and they demanded answers from Sen. Arlen Specter, a Democrat who recently switched from the GOP and who has not said how he will vote on health care reform when the Senate considers a bill this fall.
"I have spent 35 years in information technology," one woman in the audience said to Specter. "I read this bill very closely. You are about to concentrate more information about more Pennsylvanians and Americans in this bill in one place in the computers of Washington that has ever occurred."
Specter elicited laughs and boos when he responded, "With respect to privacy, we'll do everything we can to stop people from breaking into the files."
The bill does not stipulate clearly whether everyone would have to possess a health identification card, but other language in the House bill and provisions in a committee-passed Senate bill would require some kind of national tracking system, because both bills mandate health insurance coverage for all Americans.
The Senate bill includes a line that would "establish a national health plan identifier system," requiring "every entity providing health insurance" to send to the government the name, address and taxpayer identification number in addition to "such other information as the secretary may prescribe."
Sue Blevins, president of the Institute for Health Freedom, a libertarian think tank, said such a system could lead to patients being less honest with their doctors in an effort to protect their medical privacy.
"People are not going to want to share all the details of their health history," Blevins said. "The best way to describe this provision is the creation of a key to identify the individual and therefore you are able to track the information relating to that person."
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank, said the provision in the House bill that calls for an ID card actually goes much further and would allow the government access to a patient's bank account, in order to determine ability to pay.
"What I see as being problematic is that the government can get into your bank account and see how much is in there," Furchtgott-Roth said.
