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“Autism Registries, HIPAA Loopholes & RFK Jr.: What You’re Not Being Told”

By The Craig Bushon Show Media Team

Welcome to The Craig Bushon Show. Today, we’re taking a closer look at a proposal that on the surface promises to “Make America Healthy Again,” but underneath could quietly set the stage for far-reaching data collection that raises serious questions about privacy and personal freedom.

RFK Jr. wants every American to wear a government-endorsed health tracker whether it’s a Fitbit, Apple Watch, or glucose monitor. The intention, he says, is to help people take charge of their health with real-time biometric feedback. But here’s something we all need to understand: once your heart rate, sleep patterns, and blood sugar levels are stored on private servers, they’re no longer protected under HIPAA. Companies can legally share that information with insurers, marketers, or even law enforcement often without ever needing to get a judge involved. As Matthew Guariglia of the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, the privacy gaps here are substantial and could be exploited in ways most people never expect.

There’s also a financial side worth considering. Kennedy’s team includes a surgeon general nominee who co-founded a glucose-monitoring company, along with an advisor who specializes in helping people secure insurance reimbursements for these very wearables. It’s fair to question whether this initiative is purely about public health or if there are also commercial interests at play.

And it gets more complicated. RFK Jr. has also backed the concept of a national autism database that would pull together insurance claims, medical records, and data from wearables. This has prompted concern among disability rights advocates. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) issued a clear statement in April 2025 saying they are “gravely concerned” that such a program could mishandle sensitive data, potentially leading to discrimination or other unintended consequences. Meanwhile, analysis from NeuroSpark Health has explained how these broad health registries operate, and how without strong safeguards and explicit patient control, they can easily shift from supportive tools into systems that monitor rather than simply assist (NeuroSpark Health).

There’s also the way this discussion is being framed. Kennedy has at times described autism as a societal burden, which understandably makes many autistic individuals and their families uneasy. Some are even delaying diagnoses or care out of worry about how their information could be used down the line. They aren’t just thinking about today’s policies they’re thinking about how the data could be leveraged by future administrations.

The Craig Bushon Show absolutely stands behind the spirit of “Make America Healthy Again.” We believe in getting fit, eating right, investing in preventive care, and making sure every American has the tools to live a longer, better life. But not at any cost. Not at the cost of giving up fundamental privacy, handing over control of our personal health data, or risking that it could be misused down the road. Any serious plan to make this country healthier has to respect personal freedom, informed consent, and ironclad data protections. Otherwise, it’s simply not worth it.

At its core, this comes down to a vital question: is this really about giving people better tools to manage their own health, or is it building the groundwork for a broader system of biometric monitoring that might one day be used for purposes we can’t fully foresee?

The Craig Bushon Show’s position is straightforward: keep wearables completely optional. Put in place strong, enforceable consent laws. And never allow personal health data to be absorbed into a national database without clear, protective rules and direct control by the patient. Without these measures, RFK Jr.’s plan stops looking like a path to better health, and starts looking like the early architecture for sweeping data collection.

Stay informed, safeguard your privacy, and keep tuning in right here because the truth is not hate speech, no matter what some tech companies or some government officials might want you to believe.

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