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June 05, 2006

Rule Of Law

Politics  Rights, Law

What good is a law if the Bush administration refuses to enforce it? WaPo:

In the three years since Americans gained federal protection for their private medical information, the Bush administration has received thousands of complaints alleging violations but has not imposed a single civil fine and has prosecuted just two criminal cases.

Of the 19,420 grievances lodged so far, the most common allegations have been that personal medical details were wrongly revealed, information was poorly protected, more details were disclosed than necessary, proper authorization was not obtained or patients were frustrated getting their own records.

The government has "closed" more than 73 percent of the cases — more than 14,000 — either ruling that there was no violation, or allowing health plans, hospitals, doctors' offices or other entities simply to promise to fix whatever they had done wrong, escaping any penalty. [...]

The debate has intensified amid a government push to computerize medical records to improve the efficiency and quality of health care. Privacy advocates say large centralized electronic databases will be especially vulnerable to invasions, making it even more crucial that existing safeguards be enforced. [Emphasis added]

Congress wrote penalties into the law for a reason. But the health care industry is a big source of campaign contributions to Republicans, the people complaining about privacy violations are not. End of story.

[Thanks, Maurice]

Posted by Jonathan at June 5, 2006 08:16 PM  

Comments

It's almost come to the point where I believe the opposite of anything I hear from the Hill or the administration.

-- WMD – no WMD
-- Privacy – no Privacy
-- No global warming – Global Warming
-- No eavesdropping – Eavesdropping
-- No torturing – Torturing

-- Want to solve the Iran problem 'diplomatically' - ha!

The only thing preventing the US from bombing Iran is the vast dissatisfaction with the leaders in Washington. I wonder from time-to-time if our economy is really as strong as it’s reported.

Posted by: Jeff at June 7, 2006 12:55 PM