On (15 Nov 03) Steve Asher wrote to All...
 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.
 SA>
 SA> Speaking at a a public policy conference in Melbourne, Mr Abbott
 SA> said more needed to be done to stop the 18,000 preventable deaths
 SA> in hospitals each year.
 SA>
 SA> "If ambulance officers or emergency department doctors could use
 SA> patients' Medicare cards or some other widely-available smartcard
 SA> to access their medical records and health information, much
 SA> unnecessary
 SA> testing and counter productive treatment could be avoided," he told
 SA> the
 SA> 2003 Economic and Social Outlook Conference.
 SA>
 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."

Sounds plausible. . .

What if it were so?

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

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

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

Your friend,
<+]::-{)}  (Cyberpope(the Bishop of ROM!))
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