December 19, 2000

Clinton: Government Will Protect Your Medical Privacy
Clinton: U.S. Policy Helping Castro
Clinton: I'll "Stand and Fight"

Clinton: Government Will Protect Your Medical Privacy

President Clinton today will issue the first federal rules to protect the privacy of patients, hoping to keep health plans and other groups from selling private medical records, according to Reuters.

White House officials said the privacy standards would give patients more control over their records; set guidelines for how personal health information is used and distributed; and crack down on health plans, Internet Web sites, and other groups that release medical information without consent.

In "Can Your Trust the Ministry of Privacy?," Solveig Singleton wrote that although many Americans have legitimate concerns about the privacy of their medical records, the primary threat to that privacy is the growing interference by government with medical markets. In the Regulation magazine article "Whose Life is it Anyway?" Sue Blevins explains the dangers of having DNA information in government hands.

Clinton: U.S. Policy Helping Castro

President Clinton said in an interview broadcast yesterday that Cuban President Fidel Castro might have benefited from U.S. policies limiting trade and diplomatic contacts with Cuba, according to Reuters.

"I've often wondered whether he and the people in America that don't want any change in relations are in some sort of unconscious dance with each other, because as long as that embargo is there, he's got an excuse for the failures of his regime," Clinton said in an interview with CBS News.

In the recent Cato study "A Policy toward Cuba That Serves U.S. Interests," Philip Peters argues that U.S. sanctions have failed to promote change in Cuba and have placed Castro in the world political limelight while renewing his claim to victimhood.

Clinton: I'll "Stand and Fight"

President Clinton said in the same CBS interview that he was prepared to "stand and fight" if he was indicted after leaving office, according to Reuters.

Dan Rather, who conducted the interview, asked Clinton if he expected to be indicted by the office of the independent counsel, which investigated the Whitewater real-estate deal, his affair with Monica Lewinsky and a host of other issues.

"Look, I don't have any idea. I don't have any control over that and I don't spend much time thinking about it," he said in a transcript of the interview released by the White House.

Asked if he thought President-elect George W. Bush might pardon him, Clinton said: "I haven't given any thought to that. But I doubt it. I mean, no, I haven't thought about that."

"Since I don't believe I should be charged, I don't want that," he added. "If that's what they want, I'll be happy to stand and fight."

The new Cato book, The Rule of Law in the Wake of Clinton, explores President Clinton's abuses of the rule of law, with chapters by ACLU President Nadine Strossen, Sen. Fred Thompson (R - Tenn.), and Cato's Roger Pilon.

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