Just What We Need, 44 Million Federally-Funded Opportunities for Identity Thieves

If you're over 65, you're one of the 44 million people who are easy targets for ID thieves. Why? Because Uncle Sam emblazons your Social Security number -- in full -- right on your Medicare card. And it's not the kind of card that you're supposed to leave at home.

Don't Leave Home Without It?
Medicare tells you to "carry your card with you when you are away from home." It's written right on the back of the cards that some 44 million of us take with us wherever we go –- or our parents or grandparents do.

Yet the FTC says, "Protect your Social Security number. Don't carry your Social Security card in your wallet."

And the Social Security Administration is even more specific: "Show your card to your employer when you start a job so your records are correct. Provide your Social Security number to your financial institution(s) for tax reporting purposes. Keep your card and any other document that shows your Social Security number on it in a safe place. DO NOT routinely carry your card or other documents that display your number."

Two recent and excellent articles point out the absurdity of this situation: one in The New York Times, by Robert Pear, and the other is an AP story by Larry Margasak. As they show, the FTC and SSA worry about putting the identities of millions of Americans at risk -- while the Medicare people talk about not wanting to scare seniors with new cards and how expensive it'll be to come up with new cards for everyone.

Are They Nuts?!
Its hard enough to prevent identity theft without Uncle Sam making it easier on the crooks, by sending every senior citizen in the country out there with their Social Security numbers in their wallets! (My partner, Marc, just got his. Oy!)

It'd be great if we didn't have to get the whole federal government involved in rectifying this problem … but we do. The "Medicare Card Security Act of 2008 (S. 2908)" calls for the elimination of the use of Social Security numbers on new Medicare cards. It won't totally solve the problem, but at least it's a first step.

Consumers Union, which is calling on government to "be the solution, not the problem,"  has made it easy to contact your Senators in support of this bill. Click here.

What Should Seniors Do Now?
One of the bigwigs at Medicare say to leave the card home unless you know you'll need it. That sounds too extreme to me, given all the What Ifs out there. While I don't like the idea of Marc leaving his Medicare card home, I don't want us to have to deal with the consequences of his identity being stolen, either.

So I'm going to recommend he punt to prevent thieves from getting his Social Security number, by copying and cutting, as the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse recommends:

"You can make a photocopy of your Medicare card. Take a black marker and cross out the last 4 numbers of your Social Security number. Or take a scissors and remove the last 4 digits. Then cut it down to card size and carry that with you instead of the actual card that has your full SSN on it."

Until this gets straightened out in Washington, he'll still need to bring his original Medicare card with him whenever he goes to a doctor for the first time, and the hospital will no doubt want to see it if he's being admitted. But I prefer this punt to leaving the card home or going everywhere with the card that has the full Social Security number on it.

Do you agree? If so, tell everyone in your life who is 65 or older to start copying and cutting!

Nancy Castleman – Co-author of "Invest in Yourself: Six Secrets to a Rich Life" and founder of Good Advice Press. Nancy has spent the last 23 years teaching people how to get out of debt, save money, and live better on less. She writes on all these subjects for CreditBloggers.com.

Comments

[BC]

I agree it's a ridiculous system, but until they fix it, you should know it's actually not really necessary for patients to carry their cards. The fact is that they can just tell the billing or registration people at their healthcare providers office the number (thier ss number) an that is really enough. Yes, the administrators will tell you they have to have a copy of the card on file, but the truth is, they do not need it to bill Medicare, all they need is the number. Medicaid is the same in my state, the ss number is used as the ID number. The patients are told they need to present the card at each visit. Not true, regardless of whether or not they have the card, the provider still has to verify the coverage online. The number, not the card is all that's needed. In days past, it was a swipe system (like a credit card machine) that was used for verification. Now it's all done online.