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HIPAA creates huge amounts of friction in delivering medical services without actually improving security much

How do you know that? Maybe things would be much worse without HIPPA.

Yeah I'm pretty unsold on any benefits. Who cares if anyone knows my health information. There was a time before HIPAA and I don't recall a lot of issues. I guess I should read up on the history that motivated it.

A lot of people care that their health information is private.

If that’s true then willingly open source it. Within a short time you’ll either be blackmailed, your identity stolen, or have your insurance premiums go up.

My insurance company already knows everything there is to know about my health history.

The other stuff, yeah I guess that could hypothetically happen, but how much of a problem was it really and is the cost of HIPAA worth it?

HIPAA, as I have read, was mostly about health insurance portabilty and eliminating things like losing coverage for pre-existing conditions when you changed jobs and insurance. All the privacy regulations were added by the Department of Health and Human Services after the law was passed.

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