Beware Health ID Cards

Apparently, national ID cards will be a part of ObamaCare. For example, HR 3200 requires national health ID cards to allow “real-time…determination of an individual’s financial responsibility at the time of service…which may include utilization of a machine-readable health plan beneficiary identification card.” [line 13, page 58 of the bill]

How secure will these cards be? We can look across the Atlantic for guidance. In April, the United Kingdom’s Identity & Passport service announced that the new contracts for ID cards and enhanced passports would use fingerprints and facial biometrics to “provide a safe and secure way of protecting personal details and proving identity.”

According to the Daily Mail via the August 15, 2009, edition of Risks Digest,

The prospective national ID card was broken and cloned in 12 minutes.  The [Daily Mail] hired computer expert Adam Laurie to test the security that protects the information embedded in the chip on the card. Using a Nokia mobile phone and a laptop computer, Laurie was able to copy the data on a card that is being issued to foreign nationals in minutes. He then created a cloned card, and with help from another technology expert, changed all the data on the new card. This included the physical details of the bearer, name, fingerprints and other information. He then rewrote data on the card, reversing the bearer’s status from “not entitled to benefits” to “entitled to benefits.” He then added fresh content that would be visible to any police officer or security official who scanned the card, saying, “I am a terrorist – shoot on sight.”

The same issue of Risks Digest quotes a Washington Post story saying that the Social Security Administration has agreed to pay more than $500 million to more than 80,000 Social Security recipients who were ruled ineligible to collect Social Security benefits under the 1996 “fleeing felon” provision. The lead plaintiff in the case, Rosa Martinez, had her disability benefits cut off when a Social Security computer match identified her as a Rosa Martinez from Miami who was wanted on a 1980 drug warrant.

Rosa Martinez sued because she was unsuccessful in convincing Social Security officials that she was not Rosa Martinez from Miami. Fortunately, the 80,000 people who had their benefits improperly denied were not dependent on an equally poorly run government run system for their health care.

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