How
could gaining access to a patients sensitive medical information
cause a problem for the consumer financial sector?
That is a very good question, and pardon my ignorance, but I’m not sure that there would be one. HIPAA was passed in 1996, before Obama outlawed insurance refusal for pre-existing medical conditions in 2014. This eliminates the massive repercussions that could have potentially affected the financial sector by way of lost or heightened insurance premiums.
It’s possible that wide scale analysis of national healthcare could reveal economic trends and result in price gouging of in demand medical peripherals or services, but now epipen’s cost 380 dollars a pair, resulting in a senate inquiry, and our healthcare information is already supposed to be private, so I’m not sure what protection is provided there. (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mylan-nl-epipen-congress-idUSKCN11K1OP)
But legally, our records are sealed, making it next to impossible for Attending Physicians and Medical Researchers to analyze prior health records, resulting in countless deaths and injuries. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-yakowitz-bambauer/death-by-hipaa_b_1619318.html)
It’s possible that some degree of documentational transparency could provide speedy and thorough healthcare to someone you love in a state of emergency, or allow Clinical Researchers access to invaluable information that could cure cancer or turn the tides of the obesity epidemic, but we are too worried about a stranger knowing about our IBS to allow that to happen.