Medical IDs: Enemy of Privacy, Liberty, and Health

Last week, the House of Representatives voted in favor of a Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations bill amendment to repeal the prohibition on the use of federal funds to create a “unique patient identifier.” Unless this prohibition, which I originally sponsored in 1998, is reinstated, the federal government will have the authority to assign every American a medical ID. This ID will be used to store and track every American’s medical history.

Mark of the “Beast”? Unique Patient Identifier (UPI) – Medical System’s New Gateway to Completely Control our Lives?

Big Brother is ready to watch you as you hop from doctor to doctor, treatment to treatment, and you have reason to be worried. Congress has moved us one step closer to establishing a unique patient identifier (UPI) system. The UPI is meant to act like a passport into the healthcare system and to aid healthcare institutions in matching patients with their medical records. A unique number assigned to every American that gives access to that person’s full medical records to every doctor, hospital, researcher, and public health department in the country. What could go wrong?