In Stanley Kubrick’s thriller, Eyes Wide Shut, we watch as Dr. Bill Harford (played by Tom Cruise) attends a private party given by a secret society whose members have the power, among other things, to kill with impunity.
If you have not seen Eyes Wide Shut, I strongly recommend watching it if you want to understand the real privacy issues related to the mandatory health records database proposed by the Administration.
~ View Parts I through VI of this article here.
When I served as Assistant Secretary of Housing, I refused a high level order to break the law, given by a Cabinet Secretary under extreme, terrorizing pressure. (See my blog post, “It’s Hard Out There for a Pimp.”) I had high level government officials indicate that they did not have to obey the law. They “reported to a higher authority.” In Eye’s Wide Shut, Kubrick gives the viewer a remarkable feel for such “higher authorities.”
Watch Eyes Wide Shut and then explain to me how it is that government officials will keep your data private from secret societies like this one. Explain to me how the defense contractors who will be paid to manage the data will keep it private from those who are free to kill with impunity. Who do you think owns the defense contractors in the first place?
Indeed, it is fair to assume these folks would not have to ask for the data. Given their power and access shouldn’t we assume that they already have back door access to government computers? Wasn’t back door access what the rumors about PROMIS software and Microsoft and NSA were all about?
Can they get some of our health care data now? In theory, yes. However, it is time consuming, expensive and many doctors do not keep records in digital form. So as a practical matter, no.
If the government mandates that doctors must maintain digital records and that all of our records be collected and maintained in digital form and they can be accessed and aggregated by the same people who create the currency, own and control the drug companies, credit card and insurance companies and govern narcotics trafficking, how do you think they might use such data?
How long would it be until the records include your DNA and as a practical matter they can use it in whatever way they desire? If they need an organ transplant and you fit the profile, how long until you think you might have an accident?
My father was a very successful doctor. He learned surgery in Burma during WWII while watching the narcotics trade at the heart of financing Chiang Kai-shek’s army. His office at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital was in a building named “Dulles.” I took his warnings to heart about the very real manipulation and misuse of medical information and records.
Whenever I fill out a form that asks me for the name of my doctor, I write “none.”
~ View Parts I through VI of this article here.