Why was the HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) created?

Although there are many aspects of this law, the most
important is the aspect that has to do with the "portability" of health care.  The law
was created and enacted in an attempt to deal with that
issue.

For most Americans, health insurance comes with the
job.  We are typically insured by plans that we qualify for when we get hired at a given
job.  If we leave that job, we typically stop being eligible for that health insurance
plan.  The HIPAA was created in an attempt to deal with this problem.  If your health
insurance is tied to your job, it becomes much harder to leave that job in hopes of
finding something better.  In addition, if you lose your job (due to being laid off or
the like), you lose your health insurance until you find a new job.  This can be a very
stressful situation.

In order to try to prevent problems
like this from occurring, the HIPAA was created and enacted in
1996.