Significance

• According to Title II of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which went into effect in 2003, the use and disclosure of information within the health care industry is protected and private.
  
  

Features

• Despite a number of private insurance companies and government-sponsored health care, the U.S. Census Bureau released a report in 2008 that stated roughly 15 percent of the people in the nation were not covered.
  
  

Function

• In 1986, the federal government passed a law that requires all hospitals participating in Medicare to provide emergency room care to any patient.
  
  

Misconceptions

• Despite the practice of insurance companies not covering certain pre-existing conditions, the HIPAA laws stipulates limits to these actions when a patient switches from one plan to another. A break of 62 days is available for people between coverage plans.
  
  

Considerations

• According to a 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, at least 1.5 million Americans are injured from medical mistakes. These injuries can be brought to court in the form of lawsuits.