Health Care | Medical IDs Would Not Improve the Health Care System

In the following viewpoint, Maggie Scarf contends that the “Unique health identifier,” or medical ID, is a dangerous threat to personal privacy. Centralized storage of patients’ computerized health records would leave them vulnerable to the most casual record browser and make doctor-patient confidentiality impossible, she maintains. Moreover, Scarf argues, if everyone’s health information becomes part of a national data pool for research purposes, the concept of informed consent—an individual’s right to decide whether or not to participate in research—will be destroyed....

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