Health privacy law poses a threat to public safety

Editor,

With all the confusion over the cause of the massacre at Virginia Tech, one factor - probably the most important one - is the Health Insurance Privacy and Accountability Act. If law enforcement agencies were aware of the mental health condition of the shooter, this whole tragedy could probably have been avoided. Here is a prime example of how we have elevated the privacy of an individual above the well-being of the community. How many people are going to have to die before we stop burying our heads in the sands of political correctness? Even after the shooter's death, the circumstances of his mental health status were being protected by the HIPAA.

Another incident that strikes closer to home is the shooting of two Albuquerque police officers and two civilians in August 2005 by John Hyde. His mental health status was hidden from police because of the HIPAA.

The HIPAA has always been a terrible law that jeopardizes the health of individuals by restricting the rapid flow of important - sometimes life-saving - information. The first time a patient's life was lost due to unavailability of information as a result of the HIPAA, the law should have been repealed. HIPAA has tied the hands of health care providers to a great extent in obtaining important information. Now the HIPAA has caused a public safety hazard. We now know that Cho Seung-Hui was insane, and thanks to the HIPAA, it cost 33 lives to find out.

Carson Harris

Daily Lobo reader