Health insurance theft

Have you heard about this?

It seems that some people are not content with just stealing your identity and your credit, now they're stealing your health care too.

Our paper reported today about people checking into hospitals using stolen insurance cards. In one case a drug addicted pregnant woman checked in, had a drug addicted baby, which she abandoned. The woman whose health insurance it actually was, was arrested and her children taken by CPS until the whole thing could be figured out.

And figuring it out is difficult because medical records are private.

In another case a man recieved medical treatment, didn't pay any of the co-pays and then died. The person who was really insured only found out about it when he tried to buy a house and found his credit had been ruined by the unpaid bills complicated by the fact that he was "dead".

The moral to this story is that if your wallet is stolen don't just tell your bank -- tell your insurance provider too!