A new bill in the Minnesota Legislature, authored by Rep Nick Zerwas in the House, would minimize patient privacy in Minnesota if passed. The bill known as Patient Consent Modification (HF3312) would allow health providers to utilize federal HIPAA law standards for disclosure of patient records, which carries language that is less strict than current Minnesota statute.

According to Citizens Council for Health Freedom the "US Dept of HHS lists 1.5 million business associates who can have access to your data under HIPAA without your consent, if your doctor, hospital or insurer gives it to them. But under MN's privacy law, they must get your consent."

With government's ever increasing role in health care and collection of data, one could imagine how bad this bill is for the future of our privacy. Imagine federal laws for purchasing firearms loosely allowed businesses to share gun purchases with others, including government agencies. But Minnesota had strict language in law that stated gun purchase information could only be released with the consent of the customer. This law would allow the federal language to be used by retailers and would lead to things like gun registration lists collected by the government. It's not hard to imagine the potential abuse of that.

Health privacy is a major pillar of health freedom. There's a growing trend towards leaving a private sector health care system in the U.S. in lieu of government run health care. The more the government is involved in our health care or the status of our health, the less overall freedom we have.

Action 4 Liberty opposes this bill in its current form and has added the Senate version to our Watchlist on mnscorecard.com. Click here.

[PAID ADVERTISEMENT]