July 20, 2013 
Sure, we can trust the government with our private health and financial information! What could go wrong?
The Skeptic Conservative
A conservative frustrated with the status quo
The Skeptic Conservative 
Oh my god they know I have high blood pressure!
To qoute a congresswoman,
“With so much personal information going in and out of the Hub likely privy to both government employees and contractors, many of whom will have discretion over healthcare coverage and tax penalties, the potential for abuses is staggering.”
It’s not just what ails you, it’s your tax information, social security number, personal address… given what happened in the IRS scandal, AND the fact that it’s the IRS who will be handling this information.. one can draw natural conclusions.
I’m not a big fan of the “If you’ve got nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about” argument.
Meanwhile in almost every other country it works fine because there is nothing to abuse. I can see the concern with private contractors without consent but really. The government knows all those already and have known them for quite a long time they are necessary for the government to actually run. You can’t abuse medical information.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/irs-social-security-numbers-leak/
Need I say much more?
Seriously man — it’s not the medical info that’s the main problem, it’s everything around it. Social Security, tax ID number, so on. There are people in this country who would have no qualms letting embarrassing information or things like home addresses, dependents, etc. leak if it would give them even one inch of advantage politically.
Aaannd this as well, as another example http://hotair.com/archives/2013/05/13/what-has-the-irs-been-leaking-on-conservative-groups/
I could give a damn if other countries trample over their citizen’s rights. I don’t want it happening here. Please don’t make me turn Tuesday’s show into a detailed explanation of why this is wrong!
This is just hilarious at this point.
So it’s a digital data security issue? You just need better digital security. I keep forgetting Americans seem to be able to fail at doing the simplest thongs that everyone else does fine.
*things because I’m horrible at typing.
I was needing an in-road to discuss information and corruption anyhow. Let me ask just two questions:
1) Do you see any potential for problems when an enforcement arm of a government is given complete, unrestricted access to all the private information of its citizens — medical, financial, etc? And just for giggles let’s include all digital communications.
2) What do “Arbitrary Enforcement” and “Selective Enforcement” mean to you?
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.co/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTExYkV3sChXg1CzkmoAE66gBJbU7PD7kwHc4aMNkNeUTN7Rx4vtQ
I do see issues but frameworks do exist to restrict access but there does still need to be a way for agencies to exchange information. For example the IRS should be able to check the validity of say medical expenses with the Department of Health or whatever it is called. I can actually see the potential of unrestricted abuse but I see that restricted access could benefits especially in cases of fraud. I do not think government or ISPs should have access to digital communications without a warrant.
Your link’s broken!
“but frameworks do exist to restrict access” …except in America they have no teeth in terms of punishment, so enforcement walks all over these ‘restrictions’ to do as they please. That’s the point. You can legislate all the protections to make a ‘perfect’ system, but the people in the system are in it for power. It’s not a question of technical competency (got your america bashing in, I see 😀 ). The government makes their protections weak and flimsy -on purpose- so that they can easily avoid accountability and a paper trail.
To painfully draw out the point: When the enforcement arm of the government is able to make regulations with the force of law because of how they write bills these days, AND they have complete access to your information, and you are a political enemy — if they want to find something to nail you with legally or use as a weapon to complicate your life, they -will- do it enough to send a message to others to chill political dissent.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/05/13/IRS-Scandal-Facts-Suggest-Other-Gov-Agencies-Involved
So to turn over even more confidential information to an agency that’s already behaved badly seems just a -little- unwise to me.
Does your government not have informal and formal mechanisms to ensure that there is counter-balance? Whoever the opposition party in the House is here has critics whose job it is to criticize almost everything the government does. The opposition has a critic for health to counter everything the Minister of Health does. We also have watchdog groups and auditors. Are these lacking in the U.S.?
As to information exchange — you’re making my argument against the government delivering all health care without realizing it. In a country of 300+ million handling the flow and regulation of complex data of that many people through one regulatory body is sheer lunacy. And don’t get me started on what the regulatory agencies then do with the ‘data’ they’ve ‘collected’ to attempt to justify cutting costs. Speaking from first hand observation, regulators with no connection whatsoever with the industries they regulate tend to make hamfisted choices based solely on cost.
Get the government too deeply involved in handling money flow for the thing, and suddenly they’ll start caring about how much the thing costs.
Yeah that’s what the picture was. It was sarcasm.
I’m not because I am for a Universal Health Care system but there still needs to be protections for that data.