I've long thought that government software should be software of the people, by the people, for the people (to be a little over-poetic). If I pay for the development of software that's used to run, say, the TSA, then I should have access to that code. And if the IRS is using software to store my data, I should have access to that code so that I can verify that it's secure, and is calculating my tax refund correctly.
I'm not sure, as a non-lawyer who has never worked as a government contractor, whether such demands are at all realistic or probable, but I still think it's worth making the demands. While I'm confident that *my* congress critter didn't understand the letter I sent him on the subject (at least, based on his content-free response), I would encourage you to contact yours, and maybe there's one out there that would understand.
The medical data issue is a little less clear-cut, depending on whether medecine is socialized in your particular country.
Putting medical data in a shared data pool *promises* big things, certainly.
Every time I go to a doctor's office and have to fill out all the same data, yet again, or when I have to fill out yet another government form with all the same information that they already have, often two or three times on the same set of forms, I think, why, in 2011, do I have to fill out these forms at all, when they already have so much information on me that should be readily accessible? A retinal scan, or even an ID number, should be sufficient to avoid this. Why haven't we solved this problem yet? (Yes, that's a very naive position, largely inspired by the frustration of filling out the 8th form while other peoples' kids run around screaming and sneezing on me.)
But who do we trust to be that central repository of data, and not sell it to the highest bidder?