WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressman Robert Hurt (R-Virginia) released the following statement after introducing H.R. 1446, the Healthcare Consumer Privacy Act, along with Congressman Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota), which will enable individuals to remove their profiles from the federal healthcare website, HealthCare.gov:
“Consumers are required to enter personally identifiable and often sensitive information just to browse healthcare plans on HealthCare.gov.
“Given the extensive issues with the website, Fifth District Virginians are understandably concerned by the federal government holding their information.
“Cybersecurity vulnerabilities pose a significant threat to individual privacy, but this administration was so focused on getting HealthCare.gov to function at a basic level that it did not take sufficient action to ensure that users’ personal information will be protected, despite spending two billion dollars of taxpayer money to build the site.
“Clearly, major cybersecurity risks exist within the online federal marketplace, and these grave security concerns make it even more imperative that individuals have the ability to remove their personal information permanently from HealthCare.gov, which this bill would enable.
“The bipartisan Healthcare Consumer Privacy Act is a direct response to these concerns about privacy and the protection of personal information for those using HealthCare.gov, and it is a compliment to the robust oversight we in the House are conducting to press the administration to protect this data.
“It is my hope that this bill moves swiftly through the legislative process, and I look forward to working with Rep. Peterson and my colleagues to ensure that individual privacy is protected.”
Congressman Peterson said, “Consumers should have the right to shop around for health insurance without revealing personal information which may expose them to privacy violations. This legislation is just one of many ways members on both sides of the aisle can work together in Congress to protect consumers’ private information.”
A constituent contacted Congressman Hurt to express concern that he could not delete the profile he created on HealthCare.gov after he decided not to purchase a plan on the site.
Hurt wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services on the constituent’s behalf asking them to delete the profile, but they refused to comply with this request.
He introduced a similar version of the bill during the 113th Congress.
HealthCare.gov has been plagued by security vulnerabilities since its launch nearly a year and a half ago.
In July 2014, HealthCare.gov was hacked, and the malicious software embedded in the site was not even discovered for weeks.
In September, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study pointing out that several privacy and security risks from the site’s launch, almost a full year ago, had not yet been fixed.
The GAO reported that there are still serious risks of unauthorized access, disclosure, and modification to all information collected and maintained by this website.
In January, the Associated Press reported that private companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data were obtaining consumers’ personal data from HealthCare.gov.
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