Yeah seriously those things are just little paper cards.... 50 Cents? wow..

I wouldnt mind paying 8 bucks for that it'll be money we'll spent. plus all its gonna do is sit in my file cabinet! good work illinois congressmen!

I wish we had just a universal card for everything:

1) Driver's License
2) Social Security
3) Insurance (Health, Drivers, Dental, etc.)
4) Greencard
5) Passport
6) Citizenship
7) Car Registration

Enough of these stupid certificates and slips in your car or safe. Just have one digital card. And if you lose this card you can go on your computer and discontinue it and then pay 8 bucks or whatever to get a replacement.

"Damn...we've been paying 50 cents for those things?"

no, you've been paying 20% of your fucking income for those things...

@daftrok:
no no no no no no no.

if only there were some proverb that clearly explained the folly of putting all of something into one thing...

@nutbastard: Murphy's Law?

I just wish some of you older GizFreaks remember the older style Social Security cards, the ones that said specifically, "not to be used for identification."

@daftrok:

Basically ... good idea. Its what my goverment is proposing at the moment. The problem is that they also propose to safe the medical history on it for emergencies.

Which means that (in a worse case senacenario) your employed who (at least in my case) need the card for health / social insurance might get access to my medical history.

So i am not a huge fan of those "All for one cards" On the other hand ... i see the problems that come from idenity theft too ... but well dont have a better solution :)

@daftrok: yea lets just sell our soul to the government!

So how does this work for infants? When you have a baby, you're pretty much forced to get a Social Security card.

So would you have to constantly be getting new ones for your kids as their appearance and finger prints change?

I would like a new Social Security card, considering my dad gave me mine awhile ago to take to the BMV, and I decided to sign it with my nickname.. in gel pen..

papers please.

@smcallah: finger prints dont change

How about we just do away with the cards period and go straight to the implanted chip in the hand with ALL this information? Just think about it, you'll never have to worry about losing it!

So how long do you think it will be before we are all required to get "chipped" and you can't buy and sell or travel or even interface with computers or access information without the "chip" cause cash is nonexistent and bartering is made illegal due to concerns of security and taxation. And all the chips run on the energy generated by the human body and wireless energy systems and each "chip" communicates with GPS satellites and maintain constant data connections so that this cashless new info age can exist?

"If you're not jacked in you're not alive"

@Redwraithvienna:

Idiots. Why put medical history on there? The card is just to PROVE you have a license, a passport, citizenship, registration, a greencard, social security, insurance. Sure if you are working with kids they will just ask the polic for a background check and stuff, its not like this information is closed (nor should it be) but medical history is kind of a stretch.

I concur with Daftrok except he/she forgot the most important thing on that list.... Your health record! Granted, I'm sure that it would be 'big-brother' talk all over the place to do this, but if it were done right...where only the authorized vendors/facilities/etc. had access to ONLY the necessary info applicable to their own scenarios...and nothing else (ie., an employer not having access to the health info on the card, but a doctor/pharmacist would" then you'd have something there....

As or the topic of the article, I say, Why is this only a PROPOSAl and not instituted LONG ago? Hell, atleast the photo a fingerprint or something...? THe biometrics is sweet, but the old piece of card stock paper with special printing is purely ridiculous....

@The Turtle:
I actually do remember those... they just creepily started omitting it one day...

@pharmboy:
"but if it were done right"

stop right there - name ONE thing our government has "done right" and not abused to hell and back.

Dear US Government,

You do not NEED my biometrics... for anything... ever.

That is all.

-Ax

For those thinking the health record is a 'stretch'.... I will remind them that about 30% of deaths in hospitals in this country are the result of a PREVENTABLE event.... Usually a drug medication error or reaction.... And almost ALWAYS because the hospitals/clinics/etc...ONLY have scattered information about your medical history at best.... Oh, and btw, all your friends are out of town, and you're unresponsive secondary to trauma, but have a anaphylactic reaction to penicillins that caused you to stop breathing for a period of time 10 years ago when you received it for strep throat.... ;-)

I'd personally be happy if they just laminated the ones they use now.

And check that the name and numbers match for job applicants so illegal immigrants can't steal identities so easily.

for scholars of prophesy, you will recognize this sort of thing as being a literal manifestation of the mark of the beast.

"And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name."

@pharmboy:
THEN MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN CARD OR DOCUMENT WITH YOUR HEALTH HISTORY ON IT.

Are you unwilling to do anything without the blessing, nay, without the command of your government???

Right, well we all know how adept the TSA is at keeping you safe and secure at the airport. We know how secure and 'unhackable' electronic voting machines are. We know how reliable BAC measuring devices are.

Basically the government wants me to hand over even more information on me to 'keep securely' just in case? Yeah...

So, the next time you lose your fscking wallet, a person now has even more information about you than what is already normally there. Including allergies, medical records, etc... Because, obviously all this information will be stored on the card in a completely safe, utterly non-hackable format. Right? Right?

@smcallah:
unfortunately, this is true... i was able to live without one until i was 16. Parents couldn't deduct me on their taxes, and now the number i have is flagged as requiring further investigation every time i change jobs - the prefix is the same as my immigrant foster brother, who got his 5 years before me - dont tell me they go in order.

The government can have all that data from me when:
A. I commit a felony, and I am a threat to other free americans
B. They Pry it from my cold dead fingers

Otherwise, get the F@#$ out of here.

People are you thinking clearly? Identity thieves use just the number to steal your identity. They don't need the physical card. Matter of fact the only people that use fake SSN cards are illegal immigrants trying to get jobs. So this is another sad dig at illegal immigration being wrapped up under the mantra of "preventing identity theft."

Don't get me started on realid.

@pharmboy: All information that could be responsibly kept safely in a card in your wallet next to your ID that isn't tied to a government database.

The government does not need this information. Be it local, state, or federal in nature. If you want to take the paranoid route, you've just given "Corrupt" people in government information that could be used to kill you. Whoops, you're allergic to bee stings... How ever could we use this to shut you up and keep you from testifying?

Yes, it's extreme, and yes it is unlikely. However you're not paranoid if they really are out to get you.

@regexp: Pretty much what I was thinking

Unfortunately, Nutbastard makes the pivotal, all too true statement about the government.... Their track record sure as hell isn't a good one with just about 100% of their programs/initiatives/etc.... I cannot argue that one....

As for making 'your own' health card...remember who you're talking about here. Do you have grandparents? You think those cards, which are mostly just pieces of paper with parkinson's afflicted, illegible handwriting on them, would be accurate? Especially when their meds or past surgical histories or medical histories probably update on a weekly basis....

$.50? I've been making my own for free for years. Judith Reeve your identity is probably at risk.

@daftrok: You could always become famous if you want to travel and be recognized all over. Angelina Jolie gets to travel with military escort in Iraq, I bet she didn't have to show any form of ID.

@axiomatic: It was already passed into law in 2003 (sorry, I don't have the reference but someone here likely does), but your basic history is already available across health care providers and you full records will be completely accessible by 2014.

@pharmboy: IE: illegible cards... This is something that could easily be printed out by the administering phsysician at the time, which would provide up-to-date information based upon the last visit. How often do you think your ID would be updated? That would require a national 'health' database of every patient wouldn't it? Something that doesn't currently exist?

If you're looking for a list of allergies, you could easily have this provided by your pharmacy as a printed card when you refill a scrip.

Your example is just as applicable to the government maintened medical information. The wireless tablet was broken that day, and there's a backlog of handwritten updates on patients. A software update is causing issues, network connectivity problems, etc.

I has teh social security 4 that lady- 123-45-6789

YES!!! Shopping spree with a new credit card here I come!!! I'll just use Judith Reeve's Social Security to make a credit card!

....Wait, oh... NVM.

@Rotnmeat:
I think the reason Angelina Jolie can do that has more to do with her CFR ties then being famous to tell you the truth.

[www.prisonplanet.com]

@vaspin:
you'd actually be giving your soul - AND paying a processing fee.

www.prisonplanet.com/articles/august2007/150807CFR.htm

@nutbastard: "no, you've been paying 20% of your fucking income for those things... "

Ha! Not where I'm working at. :)

Regexp:

I think that's the whole point of this.... The reason they only 'need the number' is because they 'only need the number'.... There isn't another safeguard built into the system...like biometrics or DNA tracers.

As for the healthcare deal, yes the implementation of the card would obviously require a national healthcare database, which is what someone mentioned earlier in this post....when they talked about the legislation in 2003 (which was basically HIPAA)...

The card could be updated by a 'scan' at the appointment or pharmacy, or clinic, etc... As opposed to having 10,000 different, utterly incompatible, 3rd-party health record solutions that physicians or hospitals might buy into for office visit med record updates. One central repository for that info would undoubtedly be safer and more reliable than many non-interfaced systems... ie., Walgreen's med history records for patient X don't cross over to Spite-Aide's system...etc....

And, yes, there could be network issues with an electronic national database but it's still superior to a handwritten record.... And the networks will always come back up at some point.

Another advantage... Having this patient data in one place for all patients could catch adverse events with drugs a lot sooner and with much more exacting, unbiased perspectives (think Vioxx). Europe has a similar system and thus can see trends and problems with drugs or identify disease risk factors much more readily and without the controversy of Big Pharma picking and choosing which studies they want to publish and which they want to 'make disappear'.

Of course, this is just a matter of having a national database, not personal identification...so wouldn't be applicable necessarily to this situation...sorry..

@ripfire4:
Mosul?

Providing a fingerprint to the government has already been determined to be covered under the 4th amendment right to protection against unreasonable searches. (being secure in our persons) Currently, it is something that a warrant is required to obtain (probable cause). Requiring it on any sort of ID constitutes a violation of our rights.
It is this sort of slow encroachment that leads to a loss of basic freedoms. As attributed to several of our founding fathers (in various forms): Those who would sacrifice essential liberty for perceived security, deserve neither.

Seriously how is that thing supposed to fit in my wallet

To the person who commented on the numbering of the SSC and how they don't go in order... sigh... basic lesson:
The first 3 numbers of your social is based on the location that applied for (yes you can tell where someone is "from" based on the number). Pretty sure it is county level.
The next 2 numbers are your birth year (until they run out), then the reverse of your birth year, or a 1 up number (in a really busy county in a busy year or if you waited a while to get your number)
the last 4 are in order of application to the system.

So, likely your brother and you applied in the same area, no?

all i know it Judith Reeves is lookin pretty hot in that picture for being 72...

@matto: Damn, you beat me to it.

@LastVigilante: honestly i couldn't believe I was in first

this would be great, considering i can't find my ss card and i'm too lazy to fill out the replacement paperwork.

This is the stupidest thing I have heard of, I don't even know when the last time someone even asked to see it. First of all (ya ya ya, alrea ready read it). You don't need the card to still my SSN#. Second, I think it's crap that everything is tied to the SSN# to begin with. The SS is for retirement (not that it's going to be there for me when I reach that age). Its a bunch of crap.

Whatever happened to the SS# _never_ being used for identification purposes?

HELL NO!

No Biometrics!

No Fingerprint!

Why can't they just go back to the metal cards? (the first cards were lifetime, made of metal, not paper)

@Mio: Too many people, not enough unique numbers that we can remember.

Hey everyone!

Ask you grandparents about how they handled "Identity Theft" in their day.

Answer: They didn't have to, because liberty in the U.S.A. hadn't deteriorated to the point that "We The People" have allowed it to now. The only identity that can be stolen is the one assigned to you by the Federal Reserve and S.S. administration.

Only when we reject that, will we reclaim our autonomy and and freedom!!!!

I have a id security idea and it doesn't cost anything. Stop giving out your SSN willy-nilly. There are way too many banks using your SSN as a customer account number.

@bramachari: Your ideas intrigue me, and I wish to subscribe to whatever you are smoking.

Also, I am searching for someone to travel back in time with me. This is not a joke...but you must bring your own gun.

I don't like it at all...

Strange that they're introducing this plan at the same time the FBI is seeking a much more comprehensive database on Americans (including biometric data).

Yes, lets put all our personal information into individualized cards or chips so that the bastards can get at it more easily...Its so brilliantly retard.