^I doubt if there has been a bill passed for something like this issue where citizen complaints did not come into it. It only takes a couple of horror stories to bring out the troops to try to rectify what they perceive is a failure of the system.^

The key is to examine closely who those "troops" are. If you look at the hearings, the news stories, and all the rest on this issue or many others, you will find that two or three "examples" are hauled out by the activists, out of the millions affected by the issue. There is no system of supplying any service to the American people, private or public, where I can't find a few people who have fallen through the cracks or been screwed by it. None. These people can be either helped, or dragged forward and turned into political weapons.

Just a point: HIPAA was not generated by the "market." It's another layer of government bureaucratic crap sold to us as a "fix." You can look around you and see transaction and record systems generated by the free market that make your life easier and more convenient. My financial systems, purchasing systems, and others. There is no reason that wouldn't work for medical systems as easily as anything else.