Despite my longstanding interest in computers, I am leery of standardized medical records systems for all, with government links to provider's systems (ostensably to monitor accuracy in billing and proper medical decision making, referral practices, etc.). It will kill patient confidentiality, and kill the doctor-patient encounter. Providers will be trying to check off enough boxes in an encounter to be able to bill for the highest level of service, and we will have to find the right (according to the government) criteria for referrals, expensive tests, and treatments. I fear that all of this will bury the provider's face in the computer, and keep us from devoting our attention to the patient.
The employees of the companies developing the bonanza of hardware and software that will be needed to implement electronic medical records for everyone will be quite chagrined when their own records 'go national'.