House Republicans yesterday pushed through a bill to protect consumers from breaches in security in the Affordable Health Act by “requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to notify any individual of a breach in security involving personal data provided to the government through the website,” in case she might not already be required to do so by several dozen other laws. Republican Spokesperson, I. Fin Fellow, remarked that the bill was primarily intended, “to scare people away from signing up for healthcare.” Democrats who voted for the bill were able to take comfort from the fact that the bill stood no chance of passing the Senate. Democratic spokesperson, Fine Felltoo, disagreed with the Republican position, saying the intent of the bill was to, “Safely show our dislike for Obamacare as a way of helping in our reelection effort.”
The success of the Republican led effort will likely mean that more bills of this nature will be introduced in the House. “If nothing else, it will help us overcome the boredom of actually doing nothing while in session,” continued Mr. Fellow. “Monday, we will introduce a bill that specifically prevents Target, Inc. from accessing personal information from the ACA website. Bills that target specific corporations or individuals will be a fertile field for us.”
Speaking of specific individuals, we are concerned at Stevieslaw that all the talk of acquiring personal data is serving to depress our own Smokey Diamond. Smokey, who misplaced her password in March 2010, often says sadly, “If these stories are to be believed, I am the only one in the entire world without access to my own personal records.”