Insurance
The law has long recognised that, to protect them from fraud, insurance companies need relevant health information.
Companies are entitled to know as much as possible about the risk they're insuring. Currently, most health insurance agencies require applicants to disclose certain information about their medical history. Like other health information, this will be protected from mis-use or unauthorised disclosure under the private sector regime.
Of growing concern is the use that can be made by insurers of genetic information, a particularly sensitive type of personal health information. This issue is addressed in the Genetic Privacy Bill. The Bill allows insurance companies to request, require or use genetic information that's already available, but doesn't allow them to vary insurance cover or discriminate because of that information. For more on genetic information and insurance companies see our article in Focus on Health December 2000.
Personal information held as part of the Medicare system is protected by the Privacy Act and the secrecy provisions of the Health Insurance Act 1973 (Cth). Similar provisions also appear in the National Health Act 1953 (Cth).
