Re: AIDs testing and privacy

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

> There are two pieces in the current comp.risks digest (16.39) about 
> cross-linking of US databases. References are to a cover story in 
> Business Week.  Highlights are hospitals selling name/address info on 
> families with newborns and one state having sold it's drivers' licence 
> register...
> 
> -- Rolf

And don't forget that hospitals and doctors will be forwarding patient
records to the National Health Recovery Act headquarters outside
Washington, right near the CIA, NSA, NRO, Central Imagery Office, FBI,
and, of course, the Big Three credit agencies.

I'm less worried that a pharmacist will add me to some database he
keeps than that my doctor will be instructed to compile a dossier to
government standards and then zip it off over the Infobahn to the
authorities.

Buying "a la carte" insurance for specific conditions and not others
is surely a "cypherpunkish" free choice, and neatly sidesteps the
problems of having to pay for others in the current way. (For example,
someone with no tendency toward Foobar's Disease can elect to exclude
this coverage.)

--Tim May


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