MEDICAL ID CARD STUDIED USE OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER SEEN IN PLAN

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060205
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From The Associated Press and The New York Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium
MEDICAL ID CARD STUDIED USE OF SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER SEEN IN PLAN
President Clinton's plan to reform health care is likely to include a universal identity card that may use Social Security numbers to keep track of patients, say White House and congressional aides involved in drafting the package.
Ira Magaziner, coordinator of the president's health-care task force, says a "health security card" could be part of the plan Clinton expects to give Congress this spring.
Two congressional aides with ties to the task force, both speaking on condition of anonymity, said Social Security numbers were being considered as the identification number for the cards.
Magaziner also said that Clinton will not try to help pay for his health-care program by taxing "in any significant way" the health insurance benefits that workers receive from their employers.
Taxing the benefits would be "foolhardy" because it would make "a significant portion" of the public worse off, rather than better, Magaziner said.
One congressional aide said the medical ID card probably would apply first to patients who receive free or assisted medical care under the plan.
Eventually, every consumer could get a health card. An estimated 37 million Americans do not have health insurance.
Privacy experts contend that use of Social Security numbers could compromise the confidentiality of a patient's medical history in this age of computerized, womb-to-tomb records.
"It's not a secure identifier," said Evan Hendricks, editor and publisher of the Privacy Times, a biweekly newsletter on privacy issues. "If your Social Security number falls into the hands of an unscrupulous person, it can potentially ruin you financially or otherwise."
Critics say employers, creditors or insurance companies could obtain medical information and use it to deny someone a job, credit, or life or car insurance.
It's not clear how sophisticated the medical ID cards would be - as simple as a plastic card with a name and number, or something closer to the cards used for access to automatic bank teller machines.
Magaziner said Friday that a card that could carry the card-holder's detailed medical history in a microchip is several years away.
The health industry spends an estimated $35 billion a year on excess paperwork, according to congressional estimates. The use of computerized records is seen as a way to cut those costs.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB