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Comment by ciphol | Hacker News Reader

That's the possible upside. The possible downside is "if you ever search for a disease in Chrome, or on your Android device, or at google.com, we will notify your insurance company who will raise your rates".

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So if one of my friends has Crohn's and I search for it to understand what I should be aware of, my rates would go up? HIPAA specifically prohibits the sharing of medical information unless needed for care. If there is any one here that we should be annoyed at it's the insurance companies. Hospitals are losing money and the insurance companies are posting record profits.

HIPAA only applies to "covered entities" and "business associates". Covered entities are health care providers, health plans, and health care clearinghouses. Business associates are parties that a covered entity engages to help carry out the covered entities functions.

If you give your medical information to someone/something that is not a covered entity or business associate they do not have to follow HIPAA rules.

More information here [1].

[1] https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-professionals/covered-entities...

If the goal is to have society subsidize a subgroup, then either government funding or laws requiring the exclusion of the subsidized criteria for purposes of insurance pricing are the better method. Like ACA did.

So higher insurance rates versus getting better research into life saving treatments? When you put it that way…

Higher insurance rates seem likely, and significantly better research seems unlikely.

Ah, I disagree. Google is a very good steward of personal data, IMO. And I’m pretty sure health care would be markedly improved if all the data were centralized.

So I guess it boils down to a difference of opinion is all.

not even if you search; if you searchED in the past!

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