Maggie Scarf

In the following viewpoint, Maggie Scarf contends that the “Unique health identifier,” or medical ID, is a dangerous threat to personal privacy. Centralized storage of patients’ computerized health records would leave them vulnerable to the most casual record browser and make doctor-patient confidentiality impossible, she maintains. Moreover, Scarf argues, if everyone’s health information becomes part of a national data pool for research purposes, the concept of informed consent—an individual’s right to decide whether or not to participate in research—will be destroyed. Scarf is a contributing editor for The New Republic.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Scarf, which provision of the Kennedy-Kassebaum health care law worried some people?
2. What did over one-third of the...