Your comment about government funding of medical records in 2009 (“Meaningful Use”) brings up a related issue which is way, way more important than whether you fill in information online or your doc scans in paper… interoperability of medical records.
It is stunning how so many industries have learned to integrate information - but not medicine. If you come to me as a new patient your prior medical records are so immensely important - but despite government promises, there is no way for me to get those online. You have to sign a form which is then faxed to each of your prior doctors, who in turn fax back records. How much better medical treatment would be - both in terms of increased quality and reduced cost - if you could enter a password authorizing me to access your records online immediately. That would be infinitely superior to the disinction of whether you fill out forms in paper or digitally.
Sadly one of the biggest obstacles to interoperability of records is not technology or law - it is economics. Big hospital systems want to keep you in their system - and the harder it is to transfer your records elsewhere, the less likely you are to go for a second opinion elsewhere or add a new consulting physician outside of their system.