Nexus - 0204 - New Times Magazine-pages

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On 14th July 1989, the Health Insurance Commission Regulations (Amendment) Act was passed by the government, allowing the implementation of computer-linked cards to prove the entitlement of pensioners and concessional card holders to Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme items. The Act enables the HIC to do anything required to manage and improve Pharmaceutical Benefits. This includes powers to "devise and implement" measures to prevent and detect fraud and over- payments. Just a few months later, in October 1989, the HIC released its Strategy Proposal for the Management of Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. A proposal which would put pharmacies throughout Australia on-line to the HIC's national database running off the Commission's two IBM3090 Mainframes. IBM compatible termi- nals were to be installed in all pharmacies at government expense and linked by dedicated telecom lines back to the HIC database. Tenders were called in November 1989 for the provision of on-line EFTPOS style magnetic swipe terminals to be installed in Australia's 5600 pharmacies. The document also states that the HIC intends to create "a culture in which people carry an identify- ing card". In the lead up to the 1990 federal election, the government shelved its Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme plans, but now with the election over, the scheme is speeding ahead. The government has set aside $10 million to re-issue magnetic stripe Medicare Cards (which work on the same principle as Automatic Teller Cards). The re-issuing will be completed within te two years. The HIC has played a fundamental role in the development of both the Australia Card proposal and its replacement system. The Commission was established by legislation passed during an historic Joint Sitting of both Houses of Parliament in August 1974. Medicare is the brain-child of the HIC; and Medicare is the brother of the old Medibank system. Medibank was set up on 1 July 1975. A few years later in November 1978, Medibank was abolished, and the HIC's role was confined to administering Medibank Private. In late 1979, the HIC installed what was then the world's largest on-line medical claims processing system, it had become a private health insurer with the largest membership in Australia. According to the HIC's 1983-84 Annual Report,.... "Medicare was dependent upon providing each person with some identification which would enable proper and easy access to the benefits of Medicare, whether through direct billing or to obtain a cash benefit from a Medicare Office. Not to provide such a data base would bring into conflict the objectives of service and accuracy". "The Commission decided that the form of patient identifi - cation resulting from enrollment should be a plastic card as this would have particular application to assist direct billing and be a more permanent form of identification. Unlike the original Medibank scheme the Medicare number is not a unique patient identification number. Identification is achieved by a combination of the Medicare number and the personal details appearing on the card." The same was said of the Australia Card. It was to be more secure because it included a unique identifying number as well as signature, photograph, birth date, name and address. NEXUS - 16 The committee was not only denied access to the Privacy Bill 1988, as well, the Attorney General's Department failed to appear at the Committee's public hearings to answer questions. As mid 1991 draws near, almost every single crucial aspect of the old Australia Card plan in in place - except the photographs. Given that the original Australia Card was to include a digi- talised photograph of the "card subject" and that the Privacy Act defines a record as a photograph or other pictorial representation, the desire and provisions for the incorporation of a photograph into some sort of government identity system exi Photographs are already used on driver's licenses, and with dis- cussion about the formation of a national transport and road authority, its possible that driver's licenses will be nationalised, creating a database of "photographs". There are also other "identity" systems in the pipeline involving video scanning. The remarkable feature of a video scan as opposed to an ordinary photograph is that it can be stored in a computer and it records your eyeball retina patterns as well. Retina patterns are the pattern of blood vessels behind your eyes, unique to every individual. Eyeball Retina Scans are becom- ing increasingly popular as a means of upgraded identification. To scan your retina patterns, you look into a little slot on a retina scanner. A low intensity infra red light enters the pupil and reflects off the retina, giving a reading at 320 points along a 45 degree arc. Retina scanners are smaller than a public phone. The inventions used to scan retina patterns and finger prints are known as biomet- ric devices. These devices also include technology which recog- nise voiceprint, signature verification and palm prints (called palm geometry). Each of us possesses a biometric, a measurable physical charac- teristic or personal trait that can be used to recognise or verify the identity of a person through automated means. As the extent of the EFTPOS phenomenon unfolds, the use of the Tax File Number is expanded, Medicare issues its new mag- netic stripe cards, and the powers of the all encompassing, all per- vasive state are expanded, the full impact of almost a decade of developments in surveillance technology surround us. For most people these technological developments are seen as beneficial, even convenient. Twenty four hour a day, seven day a week banking through the "hole in the wall teller", the advantages of carrying le: sh and a plastic card instead. It's all so easy and so practical! The state did not take our privacy, our rights and our freedoms, we gave them away. THE "NEW' MEDICARE CARD VIDEO SCANS RETINA SCANS YEAR BOOK - JULY/AUGUST 1991