When I first started programming in the 1990s, I remember reading bug reports on MSDN (the Microsoft Developer Network), and Microsoft frequently responded, "This behavior is by design." This has become somewhat of a joke in software engineering since. But that phrase is what comes to mind for me when I think about this whole push for a national healthcare ID. And unlike in software, where it was mostly code for "we couldn't be bothered to design better software," here it has merit and is the truth.
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