[wisty]

I see why it's important to have secure patient records. It would be devastating to have your personal medical information up on pastebin.

But you know what's worse? Dying because the doctor misses a vital piece of information which can't be found in disorganized paper notes, or a bureaucratically designed medical information system (which set the hospital back roughly the cost of a new life-saving machine).

[mgkimsal]

But... the dying will only happen once, then never affect you again. Leaked medical records may impact you for the rest of your life.

[cchurch]

Dying impacts you for the rest of your life.

[stoolpigeon]

I understand what you are saying but there are a significant number of people who are in no danger of dying who need medical care that needs to be confidential or their remaining life could be trashed.

So it's not always a choice between privacy and death. In fact I'd hazard a guess that this is the case the majority of the time.