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Chinese Hackers Targeted Insurer To Learn About US Healthcare (engadget.com)
hackingbear writes: When Anthem revealed a data breach that exposed the details of more than 80 million people, the incident raised a lot of questions: who would conduct such a hack against a health insurance firm? Investigators finally have some answers... and they're not quite what you'd expect. Reportedly, the culprits were Chinese hackers helping their nation understand how US medical care works. It may be part of a concerted campaign to get ready for 2020, when China plans to offer universal health care. Next, we should outsource politicians from China to fix our healthcare system.
Well now they have figured it out can they clue the rest of us in?
Insurers exist to prevent people from understanding how healthcare works.
" Reportedly, the culprits were Chinese hackers helping their nation understand how US medical care works. "
If you're rich, you pay for your medical care out of pocket.
If you're not rich, you pay for health insurance that doesnt cover anything and then you die.
I'd rather trust the Chinese hackers over Engadget, thanks.
Couldn't they just ask? It's not like these are state secrets...
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Next, they're going to hack German restaurants to get some tasty recipes. I hear they're also hacking into Martin O'Malley's email to figure out how to run a great political campaign. And looking for dental information from the English. Etc.
Do you have ESP?
Every time it is the Chinese, the Russians or even the North Koreans. I would like to see some evidence of this. I have no doubt they, and everyone else for that mater, are involved in these shenanigans, but I highly doubt that there is clear cut evidence, or even just circumstantial evidence.
As far as I know every competent hacker uses zombies as proxies which leaves nothing to trace, if done properly.
I mean, would a Chinese politician be any worse than a US politician, really? Any more corrupt? Any less likable? Moreover, the US a basically already implementing mechanisms of rights confiscation, ubiquitous domestic surveillance, state-controlled economy, a police state, etc. We're practically already China, in terms of how the government functionally operates. Would allowing Chinese politicians be all that bad?
with no basis in reality. Eventually, people will realize that the accusations coming from a war-mongering country with murderous foreign policy onto a peaceful country simply doesn't hold up.
The China bashing in western media is just getting ridiculous.
but the one thing you don't do is outsource your ruling class. Unlike the working class, they take care of their own...
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The United States - the most utterly dismal health care system in the industrialised world, is the last place on earth that anyone would look for a good example of how to implement health care. This looks like more US propaganda. Slashdot is rapidly becoming the mouth piece of a mad US regime, obsessed with China and Russia. The Chinese certainly have nothing to learn from the catastrophic failures of private sector profit from the sick and dying in America. Europe is the place to learn about how to implement health care correctly. The US system is truly awful, amoral, and utterly inhuman. If I lived there, I'd certainly leave. What an awful country.
"....when China plans to offer universal health care."
Jesus, even China is going to offer universal (single-payer) health care. Incredible. I hope that someday the US, with only 1/3rd as many inhabitants, can someday be wealthy and compassionate and forward-thinking enough to offer something similar.
The ACA (Obamacare) is a step in the right direction, but this country needs to step up and offer its citizens universal health care, the same way they do in countries like Canada, Morocco, Sweden, Israel, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, Luxembourg, Ireland, Iceland, Germany, France, England, Switzerland, Scotland, Finland, Austria, Mexico, Belize, Trinidad, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Peru, New Zealand.....etc etc
Maybe, just maybe if we stopped waging wars at $3 trillion apiece we'd have money for kooky stuff like healthcare.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
The Chinese trying to understand our healthcare system? GOOD. LUCK. BTW if you do figure it out, please explain it to us, Much obliged.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Maybe they'll swipe healthcare.gov and fix the design, like they did the F-35.
Table-ized A.I.
Dear USA
Are you serious?
Feel free to blame China for everything bad - even imaginary incidents or those you perpetrate yourself - we'll believe it.
Noone is going to believe that China is stupid enough to even consider imitating your 'health'-care system.
Is this an attempt to paint the US 'health'-care system as something worth imitating?
Requiem for the American Dream
Requiem for the American Dream
" The last thing we should be doing is accepting advice from communists from hostile governments."
Relax. If China were to actually adopt the US healthcare system, it would be bankrupt in a decade. It would make as much sense as the US adopting the Chinese legal system. There has to be some other reason why they are looking into our system. Probably they are developing a new hit sitcom.
I think they would be trying to find out NOT how to do it.
The USA has the worst public healthcare system in the developed world on a cost benefit ratio.
Americans seem to have this; well if you get sick its your fault attitude; and that general free public healthcare, as offered by almost every other industrialised nation, is akin to a communist assault.
46137
If you (China) want it for free, you can have it.
..Could they not have simple asked?
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I offer my services to the Chinese. For a mere $300K I will elucidate in greater detail if required. Medical insurance is not exactly rocket science (and you've already launched something to the moon! Congrats!)
Let's break it down. There are a few components:
Plans - but in a Communist country I'd expect everyone has the same insurance plan, right? Or is one animal great than another?
Member Information - things like name, gender, age, tobacco user, dependents, etc. Again, though, given it is a Communist country, are there really dependents, or is everyone a participant?
Provider information - things like provider name, address, tax ID. I hate to sound tedious, but in a Communist country I don't think you'd have PPO networks, right? Aren't all providers equal?
Premiums - this ties the member to a plan. In a capitalistic society this gets pretty complicated, as there are a vast number of plans, and different rates based on member age/smoker status/gender, etc. As I have now stated ad nauseum, I expect under a Communist system everyone pays the same, so maybe this becomes a trivial issue?
Claims processing - in a Capitalistic system one would take the billing codes, procedure codes, diagnostic codes, etc., match them against the date of service, connect this to the member and the plan, and adjudicate to determine if 1) the claim falls under the plan, 2) who gets paid what, 3) a bunch of other stuff (like lifetime deductibles). Now, if we were operating under a Communist plan, wouldn't all claims be covered?
When I started writing my response, I sympathized w/ the Chinese, as I've been involved with a few claims processing systems, and there's a ton of institutional knowledge. However, under a Communist system, what really is there?
Ps - Honestly, as an American who thinks theAmerican insurance & medical business is a complete scam, I'd love to hear what Sweden and other civilized countries need in the way of medical insurance software.
There have been so many proclamations about what Chinese believe in, how the Chinese culture behaves, how the Chinese 'spell' their names, and so on ... it is as though the Americans have somehow become more "Chinese Expert" than the Chinese themselves
I came from China - and as an ethnic Chinese I can tell you that most of the Chinese people are no longer burying their dead - cremation has been the preferred choice for most people in China, except for the moslems
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Don't countries happily share how their successful healthcare systems work?
Also, they'd be better off learning from their fellow asian countries, several of which have very successful healthcare systems. By government actually safeguarding a free and fair market.
Thank you, Bradley Manning, Edward Snowden and so many others, for courageously defending humanity, my freedom and more!
1. No one wants to know how the US healthcare system works.
2. If they were looking for inspiration, they'd look at Taiwan. It's a lot closer, and people are actually taken care of.
Very funny. Who would target the worst health care system in the industrialised world to learn anything.
Is this article really true. There seem to be an awful lot of pieces on slashdot these days, targeting China and Russia. I do but wonder if someone is running an orchestrated propaganda campaign.
It's not like it's a state secret. Heck, every profession involved has conventions, just send someone to find out what they do! Ask people on the street, watch TV, read trade journals, read the laws and regulations (good luck)! There are a host of easier, legal, means to get that info.
Yes, Obamacare is all of those things, but still better than what existed before. That should tell you something about just how messed up it was before.
Chinese Hackers Targeted Insurer To Learn About US Healthcare
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Wouldn't it have been simpler to 'invest' in a US healthcare provider