Mulling over George Pope to Steve Asher 19 Nov 2003

Hi George!

 SA> Minister wants health smartcards
 SA>
 SA> NOVEMBER 14, 2003
 SA>
 SA> THE health system would be in "systemic paralysis" if a smartcard
 SA> carrying an individual's medical history was not available within
 SA> five years, Health Minister Tony Abbott said.

(snip)

 SA> "The result could be significant cost savings, substantially better
 SA> health care and hundreds of people alive who would otherwise would
 SA> be dead."

 GP> Sounds plausible. . .

 GP> What if it were so?

 GP> I can see such a system being put in place being beneficial -- of
 GP> course, any who wanted to opt out, for privacy reasons could do so,
 GP> but if the lack of timely access to detailed & accurate health
 GP> information resulted in redundant tests/etc. being done, then the
 GP> privacynik would be fairly assessed the full additional costs, in
 GP> lieu of mandating universal compliance with the Health card
 GP> program, is this not reasonable?

It could be seen as reasonable, & indeed this is the type of scenario
the United Kingdom set out when it touted the concept of a "Benefits
Card", entitling the holder to access to a range of health & other
"benefits". The UK seems to have abandoned this approach in favour
of a universal ID card, "voluntary" at first, but compulsory later,
after any opposition has largely dissipated.

The original proposal for the "Australia Card" ID system in the mid
1980s was for a card to be issued by the Health Insurance Commission,
(Medicare), because most adult australians have medicare cards - they
were issued automatically. It was to be used for far more than access
to health care, however, & there was widespread opposition & it was
scrapped. Now, the scare-factors of "9/11", identity theft, illegal
immigration etc are added into the mix, with politicians able to
flog the idea of identity cards more easily. 

 GP> To keep to the topic of the echo, certainly there's too much room
 GP> for abuse in such a Health Card system, and we all know that when
 GP> there's a potential for abuse, especially involving any profitable
 GP> angles, there WILL be abuse!

 GP> The question, regarding this Oz program is: Is the abuse already
 GP> planned/included, or is the danger more one of opening the door to
 GP> POTENTIAL issues/problems?

I think the danger lies with integrating health & other data, using
the card or its associated unique identifier as the key. I tried to
expand on that, but ended up with a headache. :)

Cheers, Steve..

---