AMA Warns: Medicare Numbers the New 'Australia Card'
The Australian Medical Association has warned that Medicare cards will become the 21st century version of the notorious Australia Card.
A Commonwealth Department of Health and Aged Care meeting in Canberra today confirmed that individual Medicare numbers were intended to be used as the Unique Patient Identifiers (UPIs) for the Federal Government's proposed electronic records system, the Better Medication Management System (BMMS), to be introduced in July next year.
"This should be ringing alarm bells Australia-wide," AMA Federal President, Dr Kerryn Phelps said. "Privacy is an issue for everyone."
"Unless the AMA's proposed health privacy legislation is in place, and we are satisfied with the safeguards, the privacy of every Australian's health information is at risk.
"Dr Wooldridge is presenting legislation before parliament right now which will force pharmacists to record patients' Medicare numbers on their prescriptions and hold those Medicare numbers.
"We have serious concerns about this proposal and we are calling for urgent, overarching health privacy legislation to prevent any transfer of Medicare numbers onto other databases, including the government's BMMS," she said.
"The AMA is also concerned about the potential for UPIs, in the form of Medicare numbers, to be used for other purposes such as the rationing of health services."
Dr Phelps said at the very least the public should be allowed to debate their right to health privacy and the use of identifiers and data collection.
"This is an act of stealth. What government is not saying is that by allowing the recording and holding of Medicare numbers by pharmacists, before introducing the new BMMS system next year, they will have established the mechanism to effectively spy on the health of all Australians," she said.