Privacy of Ontario Health Records In Doubt

sys$manager writes "According to this story on Excite.ca, a bill was introduced today outlining the privacy rules for medical records in Ontario. If the bill becomes law, the Health Records of Ontarians could become open to the Goverment and Police based on nine exemptions to the privacy rules laid out in the bill." Hey, if Ontario passes this bill, they'll have almost as little privacy as we do in the US!

Re:Read Brin's book

[cyberon23]

Wrong Greg. Canadians pay for their own health care through income tax. It's a deal when compared to the American private system, but is absolutely not a "free ride" as your post implies. Health Care in Canada is not like Altavista Internet Access (RIP), where users exchange their "privacy" for cheaper service. It's worthwhile to note that this act was put in place by the right-wing provincial government. As part of their campaign to privatize health care, it is necessary to have legislation governing under what circumstances public companies (hospitals) can hand patient records over to private companies. THAT's why we're seeing this legislation. This is a story about privatization, and only marginally one about privacy.

Re:Read Brin's book

[gbnewby]

Dude, I'm Canadian. You're doing the implying, not me. Of course taxes pay for health care, just like for all government services: what else?

I disagree that it's a deal compared with the US system, at least all the time. Taxes in Canada are quite a bit higher than the US, so whether health care is "cheaper" for an individual or family in the US versus Canada depends on what tax bracket they're in. Whether it's better is also an open question: certainly there are lots of negative aspects to both systems.

Anyway, I appreciated your comments about the story really being about privatization. That is enlightening news, and certainly wasn't obvious from the thread so far.

Bye for now...

Lose/lose proposition

[L-Train8]

This is not about online access to medical records, it's just access to medical records in general, so why is this in the YRO section?

Obviously, though, this is freaky. I don't know which is worse, having no laws in place to protect your privacy, or having really bad laws in place to protect your privacy. On the one hand, there are no rules to protect you. On the other, it is specifically spelled out how your privacy can be legally violated.

I've seen worse...

[mcleodnine]

I know of a 'Regional Health District' that had all database users with 'admin' access. Everybody used the same account and there was no way to authenticate any individual user. The regional district was responsible for the hospital administration for about a million people. Hire a temp for the day? Give them the admin password... THAT was scary. That was late 1997 and I hope it's been fixed.

Certain Information

[aoeuid]

I am a resident of Ontario. Personally it would not really bother me if the fact that I use a ventalin inhaler every other day or something similar was disclosed to the Lung Association. But a couple years back I was given an anti-depressant drug for a year or so. First of all, if I knew that the information I discussed regarding that to my doctor was going to be made next to public, I most likely would have been much more relunctant to discuss anything with my doctor in the first place. In fact, I knew many other people back then who should have been getting such help who were scared of info getting back to their parents and what not. I think in this area it could cause some serious problems down the road with teens and others. Second, it scares me that the potential exists for me to be accused of a crime 15 years down the road, and the police look back at the records and say "when so-and-so was 18 he did this and that and felt such a way, so why would this be that far of a stretch?". (BTW, I have never done anything even remotely criminal besides possibly speeding and smoking a little weed -- which is hardly even illegal here anyway).

Read Brin's book

[gbnewby]

Two quick points:

1. Read David Brin's Transparent Society. His basic argument is that if there are no secrets (including all personal data and all events except those in your house), the world will be a better place. I believe Brin would in favor of EVERYONE's medical records being completely accessible to anyone.
2. Canada has a nationalized health service. This means that the government is (at least partially) paying for nearly everyone's health care. This gives the issue in this thread a somewhat different flavor, to me, than the U.S. case where most health services are paid for (at least partially) by insurance companies, HMOs or other big business.

• Greg