Contributor

Big Brother: The Next Step

  • Posted by Erich Dunkelberger on October 10, 2012 at 2:22pm

During the debate over the benefits of Obamacare, one of the points the Democrat proponents made was the need for the sharing of medical information. They thought it absolutely necessary that all information regarding a patient’s health care be available among health providers. They argued the point that should a person be brought into the hospital unconscious, the hospital staff could go into a computer, find their information regarding health concerns and allergies, and give the patient the proper medical treatment for any emergency. On the face of things, this sounds good, but that puts huge amounts of information out there in the ether.

Well, Obamacare passed and Big Brother is making his presence known. Here comes the Epic computer system. This is the computer system whereby every healthcare provider can get access to everyone’s medical information. It is currently being installed in some hospitals around the country. A few things, however, trouble me about the system.
First, the system is quite expensive. The cost to the hospital is $100 million, but, to ease the expense, the government will refund half of that amount at completion, when the system is up and running. In case you forgot, the government doesn’t have any money; that’s OUR money they are so freely spending. Also, Obamacare was passed with the explanation that it would reduce the cost of healthcare to everyone. A $50 million expense to a hospital is going to cost someone, and I’ll guarantee that that expense will be paid by those patients of the hospital. So much for affordability.

Aside from the cost of the addition of the system to every American, one other thing concerns me. Who is going to have access to the information? Obviously, healthcare professionals will have the information available to them. Insurance companies more than likely will have the information also. Of course, the government will have the data, although it’s unclear to me which departments of the government will have access ( I’m sure it will be more departments than need the information). This is a major concern!

It’s not a rarity to hear of companies’ computers being hacked. Bank of America and Wells Fargo recently had problems. Stores online sites have been attacked and customer information lost. Even hospitals have fallen prey to attackers, revealing patient’s names, addresses and social security numbers for use by unscrupulous people. Government computers, used by the Pentagon, NSA, FBI and a plethora of other alphabet agencies have reported being hacked. You would think those agencies, where national security is involved, would have the greatest of security and firewalls available. Still they have been victimized. How safe would our healthcare information be when we can’t even protect our national security interests? How secure do you feel? Regardless, Epic is here. It’s already installed in one of the hospitals in the city where I live. It’s coming to a hospital near you!

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