On the recordFebruary 12, 2015
Last week, more than 80 million Americans lost personal information when health insurer Anthem was hacked. Almost immediately, Anthem customers started to receive suspicious email messages trying to con them. Anthem, Target, Home Depot, Sony--the list goes on and on of major hacks in the last year. In many of these cases, those who had their information stolen did not receive notice of the compromise promptly-- the best way for them to protect themselves. Because of ObamaCare, Federal and State governments now host a massive trove of private information. In hearing after hearing last year, we heard about the vulnerabilities of these systems. In order to protect consumers, the House passed my Health Exchange Security and Transparency Act, which would require the government to inform consumers of a breach within 2 days. This bill passed with an overwhelming veto-proof majority but went nowhere in Harry Reid's Senate. I have now reintroduced this bill, a commonsense measure to protect consumers if ObamaCare is the next major target for hackers. Maybe this year the Senate will act. ____________________
