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Privacy of Ontario Health Records In Doubt
sys$manager writes "According to this story on Excite.ca, a bill was introduced today outlining the privacy rules for medical records in Ontario. If the bill becomes law, the Health Records of Ontarians could become open to the Goverment and Police based on nine exemptions to the privacy rules laid out in the bill." Hey, if Ontario passes this bill, they'll have almost as little privacy as we do in the US!
Dude, I'm Canadian. You're doing the implying, not me. Of course taxes pay for health care, just like for all government services: what else?
I disagree that it's a deal compared with the US system, at least all the time. Taxes in Canada are quite a bit higher than the US, so whether health care is "cheaper" for an individual or family in the US versus Canada depends on what tax bracket they're in. Whether it's better is also an open question: certainly there are lots of negative aspects to both systems.
Anyway, I appreciated your comments about the story really being about privatization. That is enlightening news, and certainly wasn't obvious from the thread so far.
Bye for now...
I am a resident of Ontario. Personally it would not really bother me if the fact that I use a ventalin inhaler every other day or something similar was disclosed to the Lung Association. But a couple years back I was given an anti-depressant drug for a year or so. First of all, if I knew that the information I discussed regarding that to my doctor was going to be made next to public, I most likely would have been much more relunctant to discuss anything with my doctor in the first place. In fact, I knew many other people back then who should have been getting such help who were scared of info getting back to their parents and what not. I think in this area it could cause some serious problems down the road with teens and others. Second, it scares me that the potential exists for me to be accused of a crime 15 years down the road, and the police look back at the records and say "when so-and-so was 18 he did this and that and felt such a way, so why would this be that far of a stretch?". (BTW, I have never done anything even remotely criminal besides possibly speeding and smoking a little weed -- which is hardly even illegal here anyway).