Friend just got his ID majorly stolen -- someone is using his SSN, current address, DOB, etc to open new credit card accounts. About $5,000 so far.
About four days ago he signed up for a new health plan via an exchange. He can't remember anytime before that where he used his SSN. Worried there may be data leaks; after all, these exchanges just take all your personal info and send it to a private insurer.
This is terrible news. I hope it is inaccurate. Is her name Lisa?Originally Posted by Dreadnaught
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Anytime he has ever had medical treatment, work tax paperwork, or just about any type of loan information. Anytime in the past. In fact 4 days is an impossibly short time for something like this to happen. You're suffering, more than slightly, from a bit of self serving paranoia.
Tampa used to be the tax fraud capital of the US. 99% of the time the information they get comes from improperly handled physcial paperwork. It also takes months before surfacing, because that better serves to hide where the leak is.
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 12-27-2013 at 11:39 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Lisa?I hope it's not too, because no one deserves to go through this kind of a thing. Especially if you're already bothered with the individual insurance market.
It's not a sure-thing connection at all, but he can't think of any instance in the last few months where he's put this information in one place. Hasn't moved in a while. Hasn't gone to the doctor in a while. Hasn't changed cellphone plans in a while. Security problems with the health exchanges and navigators aren't a new idea at all; it's been discussed a bit under-the-radar for months now and we'll just have to see if this becomes a real issue.
No better a connection than someone randomly guessing the information. Or the Red Sox winning the world series because of what you ate.
A far more likely explanation would be that his own machine is/was compromised. We get people complaining to the library all the time about our network being compromised, when the issue is with their own machine or accounts.
A common method of ID theft is to watch the more lazy offices and collect their purged records from the bin.
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 12-29-2013 at 04:14 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Maybe he used a credit/debit card at Target.
That was "just" a massive credit card theft, this is a bit deeper because it involves his SSN. And his personal SSN, which he uses fairly rarely because he is a freelancer and relies on his own EIN for most business transactions.
uh huh, and you had your SSN number (and credit identity) stolen when you bought a home mortgage.
I'm ambivalent about the Birth Control exclusions given to "religious" employers. While religious freedom is a constitutionally protected Right....every person also has a constitutional Right to their own body and reproductive freedom. I'm wondering if this might be challenged in court as a Privacy issue, what any employer has the "right" to know about their employees, and if/how that information can be used to discriminate?
The individual health insurance market exemplified diminished individual rights, compared to increasing corporate powers. Now we're hashing through institutional and bureaucratic powers, private vs public, religion vs science? The whole mess is quite disturbing.
Could we have achieved the same outcomes by heavily regulating the health insurance industry, while creating a public option?
So....after several visits to healthcare.gov, I'm officially enrolled, have chosen an insurance product, but am waiting for my "provider" to accept my first premium payment. Their website (a Blue Cross/Blue Shield affiliate) seems more poorly constructed than healthcare.gov....without the public or political outrage. I tried to use their phone support and web chat...to no avail. They had advance notice of people "rushing" their web site based on deadlines, but didn't make preparations in advance.
Using the same metrics ACA has been held to....the private insurance industry FLUNKS.
edit: Anyway, I'm glad to be insured again. This time with decent premiums, deductibles, co-pays and OOP maximums...and more comprehensive coverage, without pre-existing conditions being excluded -- or worrying about medical bankruptcy. It's a great relief, and fairly liberating, to know I can buy health insurance at affordable rates, regardless of my employment or marital status, age, gender, or medical history.
Not that my home state of PA, or the insurance industry made it any easier. No, it took an act of congress for that.
Last edited by GGT; 04-02-2014 at 01:33 AM.
Why did you wait until the last possible moment?
You're not insured until you've paid and they acknowledge the payment.
The Obama administration has been disturbingly close-mouthed about the composition of enrollees. EG how many have actually paid for their policies? How many previously didn't have insurance? How old/sick are they?
I fear the best-case scenario is we will have thrown everyone into a Rube Goldberg machine to to "help" a small fraction of the uninsured .
I'm a procrastinator, like most people. I was also trying to compare buying plans directly from insurers, with policies linked via Healthcare.gov. PA didn't have its own exchange, which made things *very* complicated and difficult.
False. That was another reason I chose a policy thru the federal website -- it came with a guaranteed 5/1 start date that wasn't offered by carriers directly. Some had longer 'waiting periods' b/w first premium payment and actual coverage that would have meant a later start date. Some used a quarterly payment schedule and wanted 3 months of premiums up front. Etc.You're not insured until you've paid and they acknowledge the payment.
Unless you're asking about MMS enrollees, those questions can only be answered by the insurance carriers. *That private, for-profit, third party industry whose finger prints are all over the ACA*.The Obama administration has been disturbingly close-mouthed about the composition of enrollees. EG how many have actually paid for their policies? How many previously didn't have insurance? How old/sick are they?
There was a voluntary survey at healthcare.gov after the enrollment process was completed, asking questions about previous insurance coverage, and if first payment had been made. Reminder: ACA is using private insurers, and they collect the bills.
The US had ~30-40 million uninsured that didn't necessarily qualify for Medicaid, Medicare, Veteran's Benefits, or SS Disability. Many were employed, but didn't have employer subsidized insurance. Many were self-employed, but couldn't find affordable policies. Plenty had crap policies that forced them into medical bankruptcy after a fricking car accident or appendicitis, or a C-section with complications.I fear the best-case scenario is we will have thrown everyone into a Rube Goldberg machine to to "help" a small fraction of the uninsured .
What "fraction" of the population do you think should drive public health?
If we have 30-40 million uninsured and maybe 2-3 million uninsured just signed-up through the ACA, I think we can start discussing whether we just nuked our already-shitty health system for an exceedingly small proportion of the population.
I don't use the word "nuked" lightly.
Health Plan Premiums Are Skyrocketing According To New Survey Of 148 Insurance Brokers, With Delaware Up 100%, California 53%, Florida 37%, Pennsylvania 28%
Health insurance premiums are showing the sharpest increases perhaps ever according to a survey of brokers who sell coverage in the individual and small group market. Morgan Stanley’s healthcare analysts conducted the proprietary survey of 148 brokers. The April survey shows the largest acceleration in small and individual group rates in any of the 12 prior quarterly periods when it has been conducted.
The average increases are in excess of 11% in the small group market and 12% in the individual market. Some state show increases 10 to 50 times that amount. The analysts conclude that the “increases are largely due to changes under the ACA.”
The analysts conducting the survey attribute the rate increases largely to a combination of four factors set in motion by Obamacare: Commercial underwriting restrictions, the age bands that don’t allow insurers to vary premiums between young and old beneficiaries based on the actual costs of providing the coverage, the new excise taxes being levied on insurance plans, and new benefit designs.
The prior survey conducted in January also showed rates rising during the fall of 2013, but the new increases will come on top of those hikes and are even sharper. That prior survey of 131 brokers found that December 2013 rates were rising in excess of 6% in the small group market, and 9% in the individual market.
The hikes in the small group market, on average, have been largest for the Blues plans, which reported average rate increases of almost 16% year-over-year for renewing contracts. In the individual market, the publicly traded health plans had higher increases than the blues, at an average of more than 11%, and private and not-for-profit plans had the highest average increases overall at 13%.
For the individual insurance market (plans sold directly to consumers); among the ten states seeing some of the sharpest average increases are: Delaware at 100%, New Hampshire 90%, Indiana 54%, California 53%, Connecticut 45%, Michigan 36%, Florida 37%, Georgia 29%, Kentucky 29%, and Pennsylvania 28%.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgot...ame-obamacare/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/scottgot...eres-the-data/
Single payer...let's get this done. I'm with you bro. Insurance is Bernie Madoff revisited. Tell me again why insurance companies are allowed to gamble with the funds they get from selling policies that are supposed to be guaranteed coverage.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
My understanding is that it's because if they serve just as a holding box for the money gathered from acceptable premiums, then they'd find it rather difficult to actually cover all their claims. Investing allows them to increase the services they offer. Ditto for putting your money in a bank. If you want risk-free money management, keep your money stuffed under your mattress (and constantly losing value due to inflation).
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
If insurance companies didn't invest their floats, their coverage would be even more precarious because they would have to keep more cash on hand to fund payments. So they would charge higher premiums.
Like banks, insurance companies keep a certain amount of capital reserves. And they make the calculated bet that all of their policyholders aren't going to get sick/die at the same time.
We've lost sight of this because we've started thinking of insurance companies as benefits-dispensaries and care providers, instead of as hedges against risk.
It is refreshing to see that you both agree with me that insurance companies are gambling with the funds they get from selling policies. Either of you know, off hand, how thier gambles pay off compared to say...investment firms who do it for a living? I bet it's piss poor and as a result has increased premiums and therefore increased the cost of healthcare.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Well, I'd imagine that their "gambling" matches pretty closely to the performance of the investment firms because that's who they hire to invest the money for them, just like everyone else.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Maybe it didn't occur to you that inexperienced HR people at insurance companies are easy targets for steering large amounts of funds to places that benefit the investment company more than the investor.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
I think something more relevant is that your prejudices and fantasies are worse than Lewks. Your attitude relies on the idea that there is ubiquitous semi-veiled corruption in what is, in fact, a very transparent and certainly information-obsessed society. Those facets of society actually disprove the view provided by your coke-bottle lenses because we can actually look and see how the insurance companies have done, how the investment companies have done, and how the market has done and the variance isn't that large, nor are there such general skews in the comparative numbers.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
Are you serious?
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/do..._20081215.html
You believe this to be one-off. OK, I'll buy that. But investment firms are in business to make money and transparency is a hinderance easily overcome with free speech. The insurance industry lost fortunes in the tech bubble, the auto industry melt-down, and the housing bubble. All gambles they should not have taken. Stable funds is all they should be allowed to invest in; guaranteed interest. How many insurance comapnies do you see in the list above?
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Nice, we should have the government tell private firms what risk levels are acceptable and which risks levels are not.
Hope is the denial of reality
How many financial and investment firms do you see on the list? I see plenty. Criminal fraud, unsurprisingly, is fraud and like most crime it hurts. And investment firms also lost lots of money in the tech bubble and the housing bubble (I'm not as sure about the auto-industry melt-down, which everyone saw coming a mile away but I kinda doubt your claims about insurance companies there too so I expect it doesn't matter) as did many others involved in the market. Including your "stable funds" because guaranteed interest is certainly not guaranteed. Stable funds are actually lower risk vehicles, they just use an artificial presentation/payout mechanism to smooth the demonstrated volatility in investing.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
What "small proportion of the population" are you talking about?
What's your complaint -- too many people now have health insurance, or better insurance?
edit: Those charts are meaningless. They don't show "cheap" premiums that were crappy policies with faux-coverage.
Not all insurance companies have shareholders, but most do -- and when they act as financial tools to be hedged/traded for profit, they also add costs to healthcare. Billions of dollars are consumed by the insurance industry that doesn't translate to actual medical care. Every single person interacts with the medical/healthcare sector at some point in their lifetime, it's unavoidable. Those crucial services are entangled with third party insurers and financials, but the ACA gives the consumer/patient some protections those industries never did.
Take your pick, it's either private insurance (with tax credits and premium assistance), or single payer. Both options will require regulatory control and government oversight since it deals with Human Health.
What kinds of rubes do you think work at insurance companies?
Where do you think Warren Buffet got all the money for Berkshire Hathaway's billion-dollar investments?
Absolutely. Have you forgotten Merrill-Lynch, or other investment/banking firms that had outrageous leverage ratios...that wouldn't muster casino gambling mandates?Nice, we should have the government tell private firms what risk levels are acceptable and which risks levels are not.
I work at an insurance company...I'm kinda rub-ish
Brevior saltare cum deformibus viris est vita
You really need to think what you said through. While you're at it, think about what the advantages of a capitalist economic system are and how they are obtained.
Hope is the denial of reality
Maybe some of you believe insurance companies are investment companies. They are not. They have gambled policy holders fortunes and in return raised the rates while blaming increased costs. Ratio of increased cost versus gambling loss is much less than 1. Yes, they need regulation when it comes to investments.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
Of course you could prove me wrong, you have internet, right.
Faith is Hope (see Loki's sig for details)
If hindsight is 20-20, why is it so often ignored?
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