Social Security Numbers and health insurance

Tim May tcmay at got.net
Mon Jun 11 00:55:15 PDT 2001


At 3:47 AM +0000 6/11/01, Dr. Evil wrote:
>I need to sign up for health insurance tomorrow.  I'm going to buy
>individual coverage from Kaiser.  On their form, it asks for an SSN,
>of course.
>
>Well, Kaiser is not a government agency, and is certainly not
>associated with the Social Security Adminisrtation in any way, so they
>have no legitimate need for my SSN, and I don't want to give it to
>them.

Then don't give it to them. You can refuse to supply the number, they 
can refuse to sell you a policy, and you can both walk away.


>I'm wondering how best to go about doing this:
>
>1. I could make up an SSN and give it to them.  I basically just have
>    to make sure it's one that hasn't been taken, and corresponds to my
>    real birth county, right?

This would be contract fraud. When they ultimately detect it, they 
will have grounds for extreme actions.

>
>2. I could say that I don't have an SSN.  Most people in the world
>    don't have SSNs.  Would they then require proof that I'm not a US
>    citizen?  Or will they just assign me some kind of policy number?
>    That would be ideal.

Those who are not U.S. citizens but who work in the U.S. are still 
required to have taxpayer identification numbers. If you claim you 
are a tourist just visiting the U.S. with no intention of working or 
investing, they may assign you a number IF they decide to take your 
business. If they determine you lied to them, see above about the 
extreme actions.

>3. I could refuse to give it to them, but I think they would probably
>    then refuse to give me coverage.

Indeed, their selling you a policy is not required.

>
>Any thoughts?  I have absolutely no health problems that I'm aware of,
>and I'm not trying to hide any pre-existing condition, and my only
>medical records are things which say, "he's healthy", so I'm not
>trying to commit any kind of fraud here, I just want my privacy.

Then deal with an insurance company which doesn't require SSNs. If 
you cannot find one, too bad.

--Tim May

-- 
Timothy C. May         tcmay at got.net        Corralitos, California
Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon
Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go
Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns





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