SSN Overlap With Micronesia Causes Trouble For Woman

stevel writes "Holly Ramer, who lives in Concord, NH, has never been to the Federated States of Micronesia, but debt collectors dun her mercilessly for unpaid loans taken out by a small business owner in that Pacific island nation. Why? Micronesia and other countries in the region have their own Social Security Administrations which gave out numbers to residents applying for US disaster relief loans. The catch is that the Micronesian SSNs have fewer digits than the nine-digit US version, and when credit bureaus entered these into their database, they padded them out with zeros on the front. These numbers then matched innocent US citizens with SSNs beginning with zeroes, as many in northern New England do. The credit bureaus say to call the Social Security Administration, the SSA says call the credit bureaus, the FTC says they can't help, and nobody is taking responsibility for the confusion."

Comments

Re:I would like to have universal health care but

[geekoid]

A) Health care providers are large bureaucratic agency that you have less recourse against then government programs.

B) Many people can't change providers becasue they can't get ANY insurance

C) This issue isn't a government issue, it's a private company screwing up.

D) No one is saying getting rid of private health care

E) Most government program are far more efficient then private companies. I suggest you read the fiscal reports.

F) Change health care providers has a lot of problems. Pre existing conditions, risk of cancellation, increased costs when you change too much and are considered a risk.

G) the current cost actual inhibits small companies from hiring good people.
A government Health care program is far better then what we have now.