The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that was passed by Congress, and signed into law in 1996 by President Bill Clinton, guarantees that personal health information is kept confidential and protected.
This means that all Americans, including to the President of the United States, have their healthcare information protected without anyone questioning, or even demanding that their health information be made public unless your name is Donald Trump.
After President Donald Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and was taken to Walter Reid Medical Hospital for treatment, congressional Democrats began to demand to know the status of the president’s health.
After several briefings by the president’ts doctors, and by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, where some details of Trump’s treatment and symptoms were released, Democrats are now insisting that Trump be more “transparent” and divulge every detail of his personal and private healthcare.
Rep. Donna Shalala (D), the former Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton who helped write the HIPAA Act, spoke to CNN’s Anderson Cooper about the president’s alleged lack of transparency, asserting that Trump directed his doctors to only reveal certain details of his health.
That’s his and everyone else’s right to do, right?
"What he was really saying is 'my patient, Donald Trump, has not given me permission to be transparent’ to answer your questions about his condition,” quipped Rep. Shalala. It’s not HIPAA that stood in the way, HIPPAA simply says you have to have permission from the patient to reveal the information. So if you’re a nurse or a doctor, or a pharmacist, or you run a hospital, or a health insurance company, you cannot reveal an individual’s health situation without their permission.
What he should have said is that the president won’t let me say this.”
According to the very measure Shalala helped write, the president has the same right that all Americans have to keep his personal health private, or discuss details he feels like sharing.
Shalala believes that the president’s health is a “national security risk” and that Americans needed to know all the details of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis, findings, and subsequent treatment plan.
“It’s all on the president. The president doesn’t understand the people in this country need to know. It’s both a national security risk, I mean, the people in this country, we are all strong… We need to know the details, and every time the doctor gets out, and the other doctors get out, they leave unanswered questions, but its because the president has not given them permission to reveal all of the information. He does not want to be transparent. Who’s surprised?
Is the “Devil in the details” when it comes to President Trump’s recent hospitalization?
Considering that Shalala is an elected member of the U.S. Congress, could and should Americans demand that she divulge the details of her most recent gynecological visit or any and all of the doctors' appointments since being elected in November 2018?
Shalala is locked in heated and very tight re-election race with Republican Maria Elvira Salazar.
"What he was really saying is 'my patient, Donald Trump, has not given me permission to be transparent.'"
@RepShalala, who helped write the HIPAA law, on the President's doctor refusing to reveal details of Trump's condition."It is not HIPPA that stood in the way." pic.twitter.com/QgeKl2cgod
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) October 6, 2020
