Will the ObamaCare Exchanges Be a Privacy Nightmare?
Be worried, say Stephen Parente and Paul Howard:
In order to determine eligibilty for health insurance subsidies, the new exchange has to bring together information about you and your family from the Treasury Department and IRS, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, as well as your Social Security number — all coordinated by the Department of Health and Human Services. […] [T]he hub will have all the details needed to steal identities and fraudulently access credit. […]
According to an April RAND Corporation report, the feds might lose up to $98 billion annually to Medicare and Medicaid fraud and abuse, significant amounts of that related to the theft of personal information from government databases. And the political pressure to complete the hub before the exchanges begin enrolling applicants next fall will only add to the temptation to cut corners and declare success with a shoddy product not ready for prime time. [Green Bay Gazette, December 9]
