Minority Coalition Report on HI Service Bill.

For completeness, here is are the main points the Opposition made in their Minority Report.

MINORITY REPORT BY COALITION SENATORS

Senate Inquiry into Healthcare Identifiers Bill 2010 and Healthcare Identifiers (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2010

Coalition members of the Committee support the implementation of e-health in Australia and share the concerns of all Committee members in relation to these Bills to underpin that implementation.

These concerns include:

• Protecting the privacy of Australian healthcare consumers;

• 'Function creep', the potential for the use of Healthcare Identifiers to be extended to other purposes;

• The possibility of the scheme not being ready for implementation by July 1, 2010, in less than four months.

However, Coalition members feel very strongly that assurances from the Government alone that these matters have, and will be, addressed are insufficient to allay those concerns.

We contend that the Bills require amendment to ensure that the privacy of healthcare consumers is maintained and that individual Healthcare Identifiers cannot become de facto Australia Cards.

Coalition Committee members contend that stronger Parliamentary scrutiny of this legislation is needed to overcome these very significant concerns.

----- End Executive Summary.

This is found – with details – at the bottom of this report.

http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/healthcare_identifier/report/report.pdf

It will be interesting to see what is finally passed through the Senate.

David.