How come there isn't free health care in U.S?

How come my health care provider gives out my address for junk email?

• Ever since I signed up for health insurance from Blue Cross Blue Shield, I'm constantly getting junk mail from other health related stuff in the mail. Is this legal? Can I stop it?

• Answer:

  HIPAA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is the US legislation that determines what Entities like your Healthcare Provider or Health Payer/Insurance can do with the data they have about you.  To answer your question it really depends on [1] what type of material (e.g. Marketing) is being sent and [2] for certain content, if you authorized the sharing of your data.  I'm assuming based on your question you are receiving marketing materials.  HIPAA specifically calls out what is marketing and what is not marketing.  It is likely you authorized the receiving of this material when you enrolled as there are a ton of forms and disclaimers you probably received, one of which authorized you to opt-out of related marketing materials if you took action to do so.  You can read about the criteria here: http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/understanding/coveredentities/marketing.html