By Prudence L. Gourguechon on 11/21/2008 4:27 PM
The Obama transition team has named former Democratic Senator Tom Daschle as the Presdient-Elect's pick for Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.
APsaA's Legislative representative, Jim Pyles, reports the following:
Senator Daschle, as Senate majority leader in 2000, established the Congressional Privacy Caucus which is currently co-chaired by Congressman Ed Markey. In announcing the formation of the Caucus, Senator Daschle issued the following statement [in 2000]:
The issue of privacy touches virtually every American, often in extremely personal ways. Whether it is bank records or medical files or Internet activities, Americans have a right to expect that personal matters will be kept private. Today, in too many ways, however, our right to privacy is at risk. Our laws have not kept up with sweeping technological changes. As a result, some of our most sensitive, private matters end up on databases that are then sold to the highest bidder. That is wrong, it's dangerous, and it has to stop.
Psychoanalysts, because we work with the most sensitive and personal information, are exquisitly sensitive to issues of health record privacy. We know that without absolute assurance of confidentiality, our patients won't be able to get the help they need. So confidentiality and privacy are never far from our minds. Secretary- to- be Daschle will have many issues and demands on his attention. We hope that his exquisite sensitivity to privacy issues, eloquently expressed in his 2000 statement, will remain strong under the onslought of pressures he is about to face. The American Psychoanalytic Association and our partner organizations will continue to be loud advocates for privacy in the coming health care revolution.
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