Coloradans are just a senate vote and Governor’s signature away from losing complete control over who has access to their private medical records.  On Friday, HB 1330 the All Payer Database passed out of the Senate Appropriations committee along a party line vote and is headed to the full Senate.

In a March press release Independence Institute Health Care Policy Center Director Linda Gorman, author of “Bill Summary: HB10-1330, the All-Payer Database: A Transparency Trojan Horse” warned:

that the legislation grants unlimited power to the Executive Director of Health Care Policy and Financing to mandate the collection of any health care data, to conduct audits, to give the data to third parties without seeking permission, and to impose unlimited fines for refusing to provide data to the database.

Gorman calls the bill “a frightening invasion of privacy” because patients and providers have no say over whether the state may have “access to individual information on physical functioning, medical treatment, supposed mental stability, marital problems, family structure, sexual habits, addictions, adherence to government health recommendations, and individual financial arrangements.”

Noting that Colorado state government has a history of losing supposedly secure data, Gorman is also concerned that the database will be funded by “unknown” sources with “unknown” agendas.

Several other troubling developments surround HB 1330.  The first is how government has flipped transparency from taxpayers watching government to government watching taxpayers.  The second is the lack of outrage from civil libertarians. Worst of all, as Coloradans are about to have all their private medical information collected and stored in a centralized government database, Colorado media are silent.