Comments on: Health ID bills pass Parliament http://delimiter.com.au/2010/06/25/health-id-bills-pass-parliament/ Just Australia. Just technology. Wed, 23 May 2012 14:51:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Clytie Siddall http://delimiter.com.au/2010/06/25/health-id-bills-pass-parliament/#comment-10974 Clytie Siddall Sat, 26 Jun 2010 04:48:39 +0000 http://delimiter.com.au/?p=5410#comment-10974 I'm a little puzzled by previous articles on this subject referring to others' fear that this health ID might become a de facto Australia Card. As usual with our government, when we protested something we didn't accept (the Australia Card), they sneaked it in under other names later. Already, we have Tax File Numbers, Medicare numbers, credit card numbers, health insurance numbers, driving licence numbers etc. through which we can be comprehensively identified and tracked. Any illusion of anonymity is not useful at this point. We need to accept that our personal information can be accessed, and work on managing that access. Also, we can't rely on the lack of networking between current health software. Even though the klunky custom software used by medical practices doesn't do anything well, it's trivial to cut'n'paste information, the info is travelling through government networks all the time, and it won't take long for someone to write interface software. There's never been real confidentiality in our health system, so again we need to work with what's really happening. Do we have a realistic technical and everyday impact assessment of this policy anywhere online? Everyone has some contact with the health system, so we need to know how this will affect us. I hope it will help, but I look at my very well-intentioned GP pecking away uneasily at his keyboard and wonder when all these added layers of bureaucracy will actually free the doctor to do some doctoring. I’m a little puzzled by previous articles on this subject referring to others’ fear that this health ID might become a de facto Australia Card. As usual with our government, when we protested something we didn’t accept (the Australia Card), they sneaked it in under other names later. Already, we have Tax File Numbers, Medicare numbers, credit card numbers, health insurance numbers, driving licence numbers etc. through which we can be comprehensively identified and tracked. Any illusion of anonymity is not useful at this point. We need to accept that our personal information can be accessed, and work on managing that access.

Also, we can’t rely on the lack of networking between current health software. Even though the klunky custom software used by medical practices doesn’t do anything well, it’s trivial to cut’n'paste information, the info is travelling through government networks all the time, and it won’t take long for someone to write interface software. There’s never been real confidentiality in our health system, so again we need to work with what’s really happening.

Do we have a realistic technical and everyday impact assessment of this policy anywhere online? Everyone has some contact with the health system, so we need to know how this will affect us. I hope it will help, but I look at my very well-intentioned GP pecking away uneasily at his keyboard and wonder when all these added layers of bureaucracy will actually free the doctor to do some doctoring.

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