Re: Bob Gellman and me

[ahlewis@scsn.net]

In a post of Tues, 21 Nov., Bob Gellman wrote:

"Now let's guess who will refuse to make their records available.  
Those who are committing fraud or those who are not? "

How can an American citizen say a thing like that?  People might 
well refuse to make their records available because their records 
are none of anyone else's (legitimate) damn business.  Someone will 
attempt to justify *any* invasion of privacy & abrogation of liberty 
on the basis that someone else might benefit.  As someone said in a 
different context: That is true.  It is also irrelevant.

Privacy is a basic human, and especially American, right.  Cost 
containment, even if it depended on discarding privacy (the essence 
of Gellman's position) is surely not worth it!

Gellman also wrote: 
"Medical records are not actually less private than your bank
records, school records, and criminal history records.  You don't 
have to 
like this.  I don't.  But you can't pass legislation that prevents 
cost 
containment and research.  And some or much of it requires 
identifiable 
records.  You can have privacy or cost containment, but you may not 
be 
able to have both.  I am sorry about that.  I don't like it any more 
than 
you do.  But a bill that gets a multi-billion dollar price tag 
cannot pass."

Why?  Others do.  Is Gellman saying we cannot have privacy because 
it costs the corporate interests too much?  Run that by me again.

Alan Lewis