That's what Shalala said her recommendations were designed to stop. The Administration talks a good line, but at its heart the Clinton plan doesn't preserve privacy. Instead, it simply institutionalizes today's widespread abuse of medical information. Every day in the U.S. insurance companies regularly deny coverage to people who have had mental health counseling or have undergone HIV or cancer therapies. The only things people trust less than insurance companies are the government and the beef entree served on airlines.
Employers screen job applicants by their health histories.
And a recent Stanford study found more than 200 well-documented cases of discrimination against healthy people whose genetic tests revealed a predisposition toward developing diseases in the future. She says information that could tie you to your medical history should never be disclosed without permission. With all the electronic records available today, a zip code might be enough to tie a medical record to a name. If you think you'll avoid the whole issue by keeping your medical files out of computers, think again. Nobody will be excused, Shalala said.