Australia's controversial online health records system is giving people "complete control" over their medical information for the first time, Health Minister Greg Hunt says.
His comments came after the managers of My Health Record, the Australian Digital Health Agency, told an inquiry that 900,000 people had opted out of the system since mid-July.
That's almost five times as many people who opted in (181,000).
Mr Hunt said that makes the opt-out rate roughly three per cent of the population, less than the 10 per cent that had been anticipated.
The minister told the Nine Network on Tuesday the system was about saving and protecting lives.
"And in the end it's about giving people access to their own medical records for the first time on their own terms where they have complete control over it."
My Health Record came under fire when it was due to be fully rolled out, over concerns people's data would not be protected adequately.
Mr Hunt has promised to change laws so police and government agencies will need a court order to obtain patient data.
Labor said on Monday it would not oppose legislation enabling those measures passing the lower house, but flagged a Senate debate once an inquiry into the system had been completed.
"It is foolish of any government to say this data won't leak at some point. What are the protections for people when that actually occurs?" Opposition health spokeswoman Catherine King said.
Center Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie says she supports the bill and easier access of medical data, but has concerns over the system's security.
"I have no doubt there are groups out there who see the database as a veritable goldmine of valuable information," she told the lower house on Wednesday.
Liberal MP Andrew Laming says most Australians have personal data which could be easily accessed by staff from medical practices.
He suggested younger generations are less concerned with online privacy if they benefited from sharing data.
"Younger Australians don't hold these completely obsessive privacy concerns," he said.
The Law Council of Australia told the inquiry at a hearing on Monday that even with the legislation, there was a risk that the data of children and victims of domestic violence could be exposed to misuse.
Currently, a person with parental responsibility for a child under the law would be considered an authorised representative to access their data, even if they have are subject to a state-based domestic violence order.
"This means that they may be able to ascertain the residential address of the child and the other parent," Law Council president Morry Bailes said.
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