Rep. Lungren’s (R-CA) Town Hall Meeting

Rep. Lungren (R-CA) held a town hall meeting in Rancho Cordova yesterday. It was the last meeting out of the three-meeting series focused on health care reform. As in the other two meetings, participation was overwhelming. Although I came about 20 minutes before the meeting started, the room was full. I did not see the point of staying much longer, so I left after 30 minutes or so.

Based on what I saw and overheard, the majority, including many seniors of the Medicare age, were vehemently against the reform. Lots of folks seemed bitter about the Government in general and President Obama in particular. I could not quite figure out what they were angry about: they were dressed nice, came in expensive cars, did not seem hungry or sick, and made an impression of above-average-income earners. I heard lots of crazytalk about panels that would be evaluating people’s worth based on age before making medical decisions, socialism and Nazism coming (apparently together), and other nonsense. A lady was driving in a car along the line advertising an upcoming “Tea Party”. It was rather depressing.

I only heard the beginning of Rep. Lungren’s speech, in which he expressed a deep concern about the growing budget deficit, at which point the crown started applauding. The questions that immediately popped into my mind were: “When exactly did Rep. Lungren and his supporters turn into fiscal conservatives? Did they express the concerns about the Iraq war, Bush’s tax cuts, or the Medicare Part D?”

Anyway, I had not not expected to get a chance to ask Rep. Lungren any questions, but if I had, this is what I would’ve said:

“Mr. Lungren, do you believe that U.S. should have a system that would guarantee health care to its people — young and old, poor and rich, employed and unemployed — as in the rest of the civilized world?”

“Mr. Lungren, since you strongly oppose the public health care options, what do you think about Medicare, VA, and over government-run systems? Would you want to dismantle these services? If not, why would extending Medicare or another public program to the currently uninsured be so bad?”

“Mr. Lungren, do you believe that the goals of private insurance companies and health care providers aimed at maximizing profits (less care=more profits) conflict with the need of people to get health care? If so, what do you think about making private health care providers non-profit, as in all other capitalist democracies, such as Switzerland or Germany?”

Would’ve I gotten a chance at an honest answer? Nah, don’t think so.

On Universal Health Care

Despite my enthusiastic support of the new president, I’m rather disappointed with Barak Obama’s apparent lack of interest in leading the country to a universal health care system. I’m afraid that the feeble attempts of the office of Tom Daschle (who now heads the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and is most likely to be in charge of the health care reform) to reduce health care costs and make healt care more affordable (whatever this means) will do more bad than good. Nevertheless, I hope that some day the U.S.A. will join the rest of the civilized world and guarantee all its citizens — young and old, rich and poor, working and unemployed — access to health care.

Here are some facts pertaining to the U.S. health care:

• Number of uninsured (per 2007 Census): 45.7 million (15.3% of the population)
• Number of people whose health care is already covered by the government (per 2008 Census): 83 million (27.8% of the population)
• Health care spending as percent of GDP (per 2007 HHS report): 15.3% (highest among all industrial countries)
• Infant mortality (per 2008 CIA World Factbook): 6.3 per 1,000 (highest among industrial countries)

If you are interested in the subject, here are some references, which will help you learn about different aspects of universal health care in other industrial countries and efforts to bring universal health care in the U.S.A.:

Universal Health Care (blog dedicated to universal health care)
A Primer on Universal Health Care (controversies, videos, articles, actions)
House Resolution (H.R.) 676 (The United States National Health Insurance Act; “Expanded & Improved Medicare for ALL”)
Physicians for a National Health Program (a non-profit research and education organization of 15,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance)
Frontline: Sick Around the World (video: an online documentary examines how five other capitalist democracies — United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland — deliver health care, and what the United States might learn from their successes and failures; also, see a discussion with Charlie Rose and film’s director T. R. Reid)
Fresh Air: Bioethics And The Obama Administration (audio: bioethicist Arthur Caplan discusses the health care challenges facing the Obama administration)

My “This American Life” favorites

I have been listening to This American Life (a radio show produced by Chicago Public Radio) for a several months and I can say that it has become one of my favorite (non-technical) shows. This American Life may be not as well known as my other favorites, which include Fresh Air, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me, and Car Talk, but it often tells the most fascinating stories. Where else can you hear about an apartment super plotting murders of his tenants, a mortgage broker making $70K per month, or foreign-born wives and husbands of U.S. citizens who are being departed from the country because their spouses die before the green card interviews.

If you haven’t heard This American Life before, each episode of the show consists of several parts which follow a common theme. A show normally starts with a short prologue, followed by one or more acts, and sometimes concluded with an epilogue.

Here are some episodes that moved me (I’ll try to keep this list updated once I hear more interesting podcasts):

379: Return To The Scene Of The Crime: I liked Act One (D-U-Why?!): Mike Birbiglia recalls being in a car accident with a hit and run drunk driver, and in the weeks that follow, Mike’s brush with death turns into a full blown nightmare when the police report is so poorly filled out that somehow Mike, winds up owing the drunk driver 12 thousand dollars … not because it’s fair, but because he can’t get anyone to listen to him. I also enjoyed Act Three (Our Man of Perpetual Sorrow): Dan Savage points a finger at the Catholic Church for being the kind of criminal organization that drives him to atheism—despite the fact that he still wants to believe he’ll see his mom in heaven someday.
375: Bad Bank: This show could’ve been part of the American Banking for Dummies series.
374: Somewhere Out There: Of all the 6 and a half billion people in the world, what are the odds that any two people are a real match? Stories from people who know they’ve beat the odds, and the lengths they’ve gone to do it—including an American professor who sings Chinese opera for anyone who’ll listen, to get one step closer to his mate, and two kids who travel halfway around the country to find each other and become best friends.
370: Ruining It for the Rest of Us: Stories of people who ruin things for everyone else…or who are accused of that. Prologue explains what happens when a bad worker joins a team. Act One tells a story about an unvaccinated 7-year-old boy who infected 11 children with measles, and caused more than 60 kids to be quarantined (interesting, especially for parents who consider not subjecting their children to immunization). In Act Two, comedian Mike Birbiglia talks about the time he ruined a cancer charity event (funny).
369: Poultry Slam 2008: Act Three — A Pastor and his Flock — tells the story about worker rights advocates who have been using the church to intervene with company management in a very, very personal way.
365: Another Frightening Show About the Economy: Alex Blumberg and NPR’s Adam Davidson—the two guys who reported the Giant Pool of Money episode—discuss the $700 billion bailout package passed by the U.S. Congress and Senate, and explain what regulators could’ve done to prevent this financial crisis from happening in the first place.
364: Going Big: I liked Act One, a report about the Harlem Children’s Zone’s Baby College project, an 8-week program where young parents and parents-to-be learn how to help their children get the education they need to be successful.
363: Enforcers: Act One tells about three Internet vigilantes who spend their free time scamming Internet scammers. Act Two reports on how one of Wall Street’s main regulators, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, doesn’t seem all that interested in regulating anything.
360: Switched At Birth: It’s a fascinating story. Two infants were accidentally switched, and went home with the wrong families. One of the mothers realized the mistake but chose to keep quiet. Until the day, more than 40 years later, when she decided to tell both daughters what happened. Find out how the truth changed two families’ lives—and how it didn’t.
359: Life After Death: Act One tells the story of what it’s like to live with being the accidental cause of someone’s death.
356: The Prosecutor: The politics of the Department of Justice (DOJ) shown through the eyes of a prosecutor-turned-into-defender.
355: The Giant Pool of Money: Dissects the forces that brought about the current housing and credit crisis.
353: The Audacity of Government: Act Two made me really angry. It tells the story of foreign nationals marrying U.S. citizens, who die before their Green Card interviews, which leads to their denial of residence by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service and deportation from the country.
350: Human Resources: Act One tells a story of New York teachers, who spend months, and sometimes years, in secret rooms, while they are being investigated by the Board of Education for something they may, or may not, know they did.
349: Valentine’s Day 2008: Is a collection of not very traditional love stories.
347: Matchmakers: I liked Act One (a story about realities of love in modern day Afghanistan) and Act Three (an illustration of racial prejudices shown through a window of the toy store FAO Schwartz).
344: The Competition: Both acts offer interesting stories: one is about a group of Indian workers who have been short of enslaved by an American steel tank maker and a pastor who helped them; the other describes the act of courage by a journalist who chose not to report about a former sex offender working with kids at a local ice rink.
340: The Devil in Me: Act One tells the story of the unusual action an Iraq War veteran, who came home from the War plagued by feelings of hate and anger toward Muslims, took to change himself, and the Muslim students who helped him do it.
323: The Super: All three acts are worth listening, but I liked the first one — the story about an apartment super with mob connections and dark past — most.
322: Shouting Across the Divide: Act One offers a disturbing story about the prejudice a Palestinian family encounters in suburban America.
318: With Great Power: This episode focuses on people who have power to help and hurt other people and their decision to use or not to use this power.
304: Heretics: The story of Reverend Carlton Pearson, a renowned evangelical pastor in Tulsa, Oklahoma, who cast aside the idea of Hell, and with it everything he’d worked for over his entire life.
291: Reunited (And It Feels So Good): Stories about getting back together. I really liked Act One: the story of an Iranian couple who were unhappily married for 27 years, split up, got divorced, and then, two years after that they fell in love and married each other again.

“Ghosts of Rwanda” or “Hotel Rwanda”

It’s always a bummer when you read an interesting book and then watch a movie, which does not quite meet your expectations. Maybe this is why, after seeing “Ghosts of Rwanda” (a great documentary produced by PBS), I could not bring myself to watch “Hotel Rwanda”, a move based on the same story. Even though most critics and movie goers gave it favorable reviews, I was afraid that the movie would spoil the effect of the documentary.

Nevertheless, I recently read an old post written by Scott Hanselman in which he recommended the movie, and knowing Scott’s interest and knowledge of Africa, I thought I would give it a try. After watching the movie, I can say that I liked it as well. I did not pick such subtleties mentioned by Scott as inconsistencies in names, languages, and dialects, although I suspect that being produced by Westerners for Western audiences, the movie is not 100% authentic; however, I think it is a great movie, which tells a fascinating and moving story, and it does it well.

Between the two — the move and the documentary — I still like the documentary better, so for those who saw only of them, I recommend watching the other. You should not be disappointed.

The banks are losing money… Your money!

Anyone paying attention to the news must know that financial institutions have been losing money, and they have been losing big. The amounts of write-offs are mind-boggling: Washington Mutual: $1.4 billion, Bank of America: $6.5 billion; Citigroup $13 billion… And these just first-quarter losses (for 2008).

Anyway, while banks are losing money, it’s time to check your own statements, because you may have been losing money, too. It may be a coincidence, but for some reason, within the last 3-4 weeks I was charged four times, all by mistake. First, Citibank imposed a monthly finance charge on the account I had for years. I’m sure that I met all requirements of the free account, but the charge sneaked on me, and I would not have detected it if not for a warning from Mint.com (after this notification, I came to appreciate Mint’s services). Then I received an annual charge for my free AAdvantage card (a customer service representative said that it was a mistake). Then, I got a charge for an annual credit card transaction summary, which I had never requested, nor received (I don’t even know what it’s for). Finally, one of the credit cards suddenly enrolled me in a protection plan (it’s one of these deals when they send you check for $6 or so, cashing which you get automatically enrolled in the plan; I’m pretty sure I have not cashed any such checks lately).

I’m no conspiracy theorist, but this seems very suspicious. (BTW, these incidents do not seem to be related to my identity theft issue, since these are legitimate accounts belonging to me.) Fortunately, banks agreed to reverse the charges, but if I were less attentive, I would’ve lost $50-$60 in few weeks. In the big scheme of things, $50-$60 is not a big amount, but I would rather spend it on things other than erroneous finance charges. I suspect you would, too, so go ahead and check your bank statements.

Someone stole my identity. Now what?

The 2007 tax season brought me an unpleasant surprise: my (e-filed) federal tax return was rejected. The Federal EF Rejection Diagnostics form indicated the problem:

“Reject: Error Code 0515: Your Social Security number cannot be used more than once in the return or on another return.”

Apparently someone had already filed a tax return using my name and Social Security number. A classic case of identity theft. So what do I do now?

I started by visiting the local IRS office. After waiting a couple of hours, I talked to a nice lady who appeared genuinely surprised to learn about my problem. Based on the IRS computer record, the person using my identity filed his (her?) tax return in New York, NY (I’m in Northern California). The IRS lady instructed me to send my tax return forms via regular mail and recommended to contact Social Security Administration to make sure it did not issue a duplicate number (I can’t imagine how this can happen, but who knows). She also suggested to file ID theft reports with the Federal Trades Commission (FTC) and police.

From the IRS office, I headed straight to Social Security Administration. As I suspected, my number had not been issued to anybody else (duh!) and my record (address, employer, etc) looked fine.

Then I called Equifax to set up a fraud alert. Equifax promised to alert the other two credit bureaus — Experian and TransUnion — and indeed, a few days later I received confirmation letters from both of them (I did not have to call them). I do not remember if I requested a credit report, or if it was part of the fraud alert process, but in about two weeks, I also got my credit report from Equifax (in future, I would recommend getting a credit report first, because once a fraud alert is set, getting a credit report will be more difficult). I did not find any suspicious activities in the credit report.

Next stop was the local police station (I think police reports are supposed to be filed at the department based on the home address). An officer filed an identity theft report and gave me the report number. Several days later, I got a call from an investigating officer, who said that they would’ve transferred my case to New York, but since they did not know the exact address of the scammer, they did not know which precinct should’ve handled the case. He said that they would transfer the case to IRS (I assume, to the Criminal Investigation unit).

Finally, I filed an ID theft complaint with FTC. The FTC form and instructions are a bit confusing. For example, in one section, it asks for the information related to police report (name of police department where report was filed, report number), but the instructions tell you to take the FTC complaint form to police so it can be filled there. I guess the order does not matter as long as both FTC and police are notified.

About a month later, I called IRS to check out the status of my case. I did not find out much. An IRS representative mentioned that my tax return still listed the New York address (which, I assumed, was phony) and that the case was handled by a different department. She said that I should expect IRS to contact me within 45 days of the call. I think this is the same promise I heard in the IRS office, but it has not been 45 days, yet, so I’ll be waiting. Based on accounts of other people who experienced the same problem, I do not expect a quick resolution. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, here are some suggestions for people who run into a similar problem.

First, report the problem to IRS. Either visit a local IRS office or call the advertised number (1-800-829-1040; you may need to check the number in case it changes). If you call, you need to navigate the maze of voice prompts to get to a real person, and you may get a message saying that there are too many callers. Don’t give up, try calling at a different time. For example, I had to wait about 10 minutes around 4 PM PST on Monday before reaching a person, while a few hours before I got disconnected because of the high call volume. When you talk to an IRS representative, try to find as much about the thief as possible (reported address, date when tax return was filed, etc). Also record the representative’s name and ID. And mark the date, so you do not forget to follow up if you do not hear from IRS within 45 days. Second, contact Social Security Administration to verify your personal information: address, employer, etc. It’s very unlikely that someone else gets your Social Security number, but check it just in case. Third, request credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion, and then set up a fraud alert (you can set up a fraud alert at one of the credit bureaus). Forth, file a police report with your local police department. Record the report number. Fifth, submit an ID theft complaint to FTC. Finally, call IRS again to verify that your case is being investigated.

Here are some helpful links:
What can I do if I think someone has filed a tax return using my social security number?
What To Do If Your Personal Information Has Been Compromised
Identity Theft and Your Tax Records
Has Your Identity Been Stolen?
ID Theft Complaint Instructions
Recover From Identity Theft
Your Access to Free Credit Reports
Helping Victims

More on IRS and identity theft in the news:
IRS Promises Identity Theft Protection in Testimony to Senate Committee
IRS chief to tackle identity theft

See also:
12 steps for victims of identity fraud
Why is IRS withholding my tax refund?
How to Deal With Identity Theft

UPDATE: My case was eventually resolved in July 2008 with the help from Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS). After a trip to a local IRS office and three phone calls which despite the promises led nowhere, an IRS representative suggested that I open a case with TAS, which I did (actually, the same IRS representative opened the case for me). Within a few days, I got a phone call from a TAS worker, who was genuinely nice and seemed to be eager to help me. She asked me to mail (or fax) her a copy of my tax return, police report, and documents confirming my identity. She promised to call me back in a couple of weeks and gave me the timeline (i.e. when I could expect the case to be resolved, etc). She called me a few more times to inform me on the progress and finally, when I got my return (with small interest), to close the case. Overall, I was very impressed with the TAS service. She told me that may file was marked in case someone tries to use my SSN for tax return in future, so I’ll see how it goes in 2009.

UPDATE: Per Jonnelle Marte:

“You can report suspected identity theft to the IRS Identity Protection Specialized Unit at 1-800-908-4490.”

UPDATE: It’s amazing, but six years later IRS is still clueless. Watch
Biggest IRS scam around: Identity tax refund fraud (“60 Minutes”). The funniest part:

There were more hearings in 2011 and another in 2012 with deputy IRS Commissioner Steve Miller.

Steve Miller: We cannot stop all identity theft, however we are better than we were and we will get better still.

In those ensuing years, the number of cases of stolen identity refund fraud has risen from 51,000 to nearly three million.

Better, indeed.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a sweet Christmas animation — created by the award-winning Russian animator Mikhail Aldashin — that you may enjoy:

Best wishes!

Buying prescription glasses online

Since I’ve had LASIK, I do not wear prescription glasses (at least, not at this point), but if you (or your loved ones) do, consider buying glasses online. Apparently, you can get very nice, quality frames and lenses for less than $100, but to get the best out of your online order, check out these posts:

Adventures in $40 eyeglasses
Eyeglasses Stores are for Suckers
Eyeglass Retailer Reviews

A couple of recommendations. First, before ordering, check what other customers say about a particular store. Also, check how it’s rated by Better Business Bureau. Second, see if the vendor offers any online coupons.

Power to the (old) people

Mona Shaw is my new (okay, old) hero. In case you haven’t heard about Mona Shaw, she is a 75-year old lady, who was seeking satisfaction from her cable, Internet, and phone service provider, and had to take matters in her own hands (okay, it was a hammer). That’s… COMCASTIC!

Living on the edge… of a chair

The life of the security director of the Sacramento Public Library James Mayle is full of dangers. First, there is a risk of being caught helping his wife’s contracting companies cheat the library system out of an estimated $650,000. Second, there is this… chair! According to The Sacramento Bee:

“[Mayle] has a pending worker’s compensation claim related to pain sustained after falling off his chair.”

Kudos to SacBee for investigative journalism. And kudos to the chair, although it should have kicked Mayle’s butt harder.