1. United States
2. Ill.
3. Letter

It is concerning that the National Institutes of Health is amassing a massive trove of private medical records from various federal agencies, private insurers, pharmacy chains, and other sources for Secretary Kennedy's autism research initiative. Consolidating such comprehensive health data on a large swath of the American population into a centralized platform raises significant privacy risks. While researching the potential causes and factors related to autism is important, it should not come at the expense of violating individuals' protected health information and medical privacy rights under HIPAA. The proposal to link together medication records, lab results, genetic data, insurance claims, and data from wearable devices creates an unprecedented level of surveillance over people's personal health details. Even with assurances of maintaining confidentiality, concentrating this sensitive data increases potential vulnerabilities to breaches or misuse. A compromise could expose deeply personal information on a massive scale. Individuals did not consent to have their private medical histories compiled in this manner for research purposes. This overreach disregards privacy rights and sets a troubling precedent of the government accessing citizens' most intimate health data without proper oversight or limitations. Medical records should remain secured within their respective silos to protect patient confidentiality as intended under HIPAA. I urge you to reconsider this drastic plan and uphold the public's reasonable expectation of health data privacy.