Is New ID Good For Your Health?

Confirmed: President Clinton and his advisers are quietly planning to push for the following kind of plan - assign to every American what is called a "unique health identifier."

That is, a computer code that could be, would be used to make a nationwide database. This database could, would track every citizen's medical history from cradle to grave.

This was reported, and in just about those words, in this morning's New York Times. We give them credit because they deserve it. Although--and this is curious--the Times is increasingly slow in giving anyone else credit for stories
they break these days. Slow to the point that sometimes they don't do it. But, that's an aside.

This health identifier business is serious, and needs to be seriously considered and debated. But understand this, the so-called electronic code was mandated by the Republican-controlled Congress in l996 - put into law.

Behind this law getting through Congress were big insurance companies and a some medical researchers.

Opposed were, and still are, advocates for citizen privacy and a number of doctors' organizations.

Here is the argument for it: Hospitals and doctors could monitor the health of patients as they switch from one insurance plan to the next. Patients wouldn't have to go through so much bureaucracy to get records. Billing would be easier and cheaper. There would be vast new opportunities for scientific study.

Here is the argument against it: More Big Brother possibilities for a government already deep into Big Brotherism. Sensitive, including damaging, health information would be widely available.

For instance, would you like to see your whole medical history, doctor visits and all, posted on the Internet? Health information could be put together with financial records and/or criminal investigations to destroy someone's reputation, or chances for getting a job.

When the Social Security Act was first passed in the l930s, there were all kinds of promises made about keeping the information private. Those promises were kept for many years. But now, late in the century, they have crumbled. Social Security information is widely available, for all kinds of purposes.

This health identifier deal would be the first comprehensive national identification system since Social Security.

So far, the public has been only vaguely aware of the effort to put it into place, if aware at all.

©1998 CBS Worldwide Corp