Protecting Medical Privacy: Your Health Information Belongs to You
As your candidate for New York State Assembly District 52, I am committed to safeguarding one of our most fundamental rights: the privacy of our personal health information. In our diverse, progressive Brooklyn neighborhoods-from Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn to Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, and beyond-families, professionals, students, immigrants, and working people deserve to know that their medical conditions, treatments, and choices remain confidential and protected from unnecessary intrusion.Your health records and personal medical decisions should stay private-shared only between you and your trusted healthcare providers when needed for your care. No government agency, employer, school, public transportation system, service provider, or place of public assembly should have the power to demand your private health information as a condition of participation in everyday life.
This isn't about opposing legitimate public health measures-it's about preventing overreach that erodes trust, invades privacy, and disproportionately affects vulnerable communities. In a district like ours, where renters, low-wage workers, families, and marginalized groups already face barriers, forcing disclosure of sensitive health details can lead to discrimination, job loss, housing challenges, or exclusion from essential services.
New York has long led the way in protecting individual rights and personal freedoms. We must extend that leadership to ensure strong, enforceable safeguards for medical privacy in an era of increasing data collection and sharing.
When elected to the Assembly, I will introduce and fight for legislation to:
- Make it a clear criminal offense for any entity-public or private-to require disclosure of personal health information for any purpose other than directly providing or improving an individual's healthcare.
- Prohibit the creation or maintenance of centralized government registries tracking vaccination status, health conditions, or other private medical data that could be used for surveillance or discrimination.
- Strengthen protections so that health privacy remains a core right, consistent with our values of equity, consent, and individual autonomy.
These measures will help build trust in our healthcare system, protect working families from coercive demands, and ensure that personal health choices stay personal-without undermining community well-being.
Together, let's keep medical privacy sacred in New York.
Join me in championing policies that put people first and defend the right to keep your health information private.
Contact me today to get involved and help make robust medical privacy protections a priority for District 52.