My Frustration with The HIPAA Law

How can I equally respect and hate the HIPAA law? Right now, I hate it more than respect it, but I do appreciate the law in the big picture. I can tell you that I had to jump through hoops to get my own grandmother's records (as limited as they were) and now I've been trying to get insight on her paternal aunt who also died in the same facility that my grandmother died in. Considering that the law deals with privacy and insurance, I'm thinking that the people I'm interested in, didn't have insurance during the time they were "incarcerated".

I just want to know what happened and how she ended up there, but I am not "eligible" to receive that information as I'm not considered the closest living relative. I've attempted to reach out via other sources to a great granddaughter of my grandmother's aunt, but haven't had any luck there. Possibly, the "descendant" isn't really into the gen research and doesn't know or care, but that doesn't mean others feel the same way. Therefore, how do we handle this?

So, if you're not not a direct descendant, how do you obtain this information if the direct descendants don't really give a damn? The laws really do screw things up. I'm talking about a woman that died in the early 1950s and not someone that recently died. But, it is someone from my bloodline and I want to know that history. Why is that so difficult? This is bugging the hell out of me.