Pete Stark: “enactment of federal legislation to protect the medical privacy of Americans has been a subject of congressional debate…”

“enactment of federal legislation to protect the medical privacy of Americans has been a subject of congressional debate for years. More recently, with passage of the financial modernization legislation last year, financial privacy has been on the minds of millions, and electronic privacy concerns are becoming a major source of friction for dot.com companies and consumers. Legislative solutions in these areas are not simple. Inevitably, the rules that will do the most to protect consumers cause affected businesses to object that they would be burdensome and costly. But reasonable solutions are needed, or the fears that many harbor now-- that public and private entities they know nothing about are somehow gaining access without their knowledge to intimate (and sometimes damaging and embarrassing) information about them--will increasingly cause privacy-protective consumers to take extreme measures to avoid releasing as much personal information as possible. Or, they may simply decide to lie. Already, surveys tell us that some consumers are deciding not to seek certain medical treatments--genetic tests in particular--because they fear that the results could render them uninsurable. On the other hand, insurers insist that they have a right to seek and demand as much information as possible in order to accurately determine risk and premiums. Legislation is urgently needed to set boundaries and rules that are fair, reasonable, broad and balanced.”