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Whether or not you are able to get your insurance company to cover any of the costs associated with bariatric surgery depends on your individual situation. If your doctor recommends advises weight loss surgery because he or she feels that your obesity is a direct and immediate threat to your health, then you can ask them to provide your insurance company with a letter of medical necessity to encourage your insurer to cover the procedure.

Do car insurance companies discriminate against the poor? That question is at the heart of a new study by the Consumer Federation of America, which recently published “Lower-Income Households and the Auto Insurance Marketplace: Challenges and Opportunities,” to examine whether insurers deliberately charged higher premiums to those with low- and middle-level incomes, making it that much harder for these families to afford car insurance. Is there a chasm separating the rich from the poor in the insurance industry? The CFA’s date seems to back up the assertion that there is.

Jesus Navarro has a job and private insurance. He is also an illegal Mexican immigrant. That last fact is the reason why Navarro, who has kidney damage and needs a transplant to live, faces what ABC News called “an insurmountable hurdle in the race to save his life,” despite having a willing, matching donor in his wife. Navarro, who lives in Oakland, California, has been refused a transplant operation by UC San Francisco Medical Center. Hospital officials say that his uncertain legal status casts his ability to receive adequate, necessary follow-up care into question. The ethical dilemma at the heart of the story has ignited the nation – things are tense between the healthcare industry and immigration officials in California, where many undocumented immigrants live, and medical professional face heartbreaking dilemmas everyday when it comes to trying to save the lives of those who live in America without legal authorization.

I tend to read a lot about how how jobseekers should act/dress/converse if they want a good shot at achieving the job of their dreams, but very little about the niceties expected of employers when they are interviewing someone for a job. With more Americans jobless than at almost any other point in recorded history, there are a LOT of people out there on the job trail. It’s easy for them to get frustrated and saddened by the wearing-down of being rejected again and again. Also, I’d imagine, it’s easy for employers to get jaded by the steady stream of people bombarding their door, all but begging for a position.

Those who have been on unemployment insurance for a long period of time are, again, facing certain disaster. On New Year’s Eve, just a week from now, a legal provision will expire that heretofore had extended a critical lifeline to those Americans who have been without work for the longest. Come January 14th, almost three-quarters of a million Americans stand to lose their benefits. By March 3, 2012, that number could top two-and-a-half million, says the White House.

Once upon a time, flippers got a pretty bad rap. These investors, who buy homes at rock-bottom prices and then resell them, possibly with some refurbishment in the interim, chase profits. Before the housing crash, when the market was at the biggest point of the bubble, these folks did a pretty good business for themselves. It was so good, in fact, that flippers took a lot of blame for driving prices up, and the government put laws in place meant to curtail those who would quickly buy and resell homes. Thanks to the tragic state of the housing market at present – yes, it is just that bad – flippers are actually getting a bit of a break, courtesy of the Federal Housing Administration. The mortgage insurer took the unusual step of extending a waiver of its anti-flipping regulations through 2012.

I recently read a letter in a financial advice column in which the letter writer asked whether his elderly grandmother, who has a lot of medical expenses, ought to consider a reverse mortgage to help pay her bills. I thought it was an intriguing question, since so few seniors seem to understand what exactly a reverse mortgage is, how it is given, and when it ought to be used.

It’s downright depressing how easily consumers can get scammed nowadays. For 2012, I am making it my resolution to post more articles related to how readers can avoid getting tricked by scum who prey on gullibility. I hate to say it, but an area where scammers frequently give good folks the run-around is on the purchase of used cars. And no, I don’t necessarily mean those bought through private sale. The used car industry – including commercial dealerships – is shockingly rife with opportunities for buyers to get hosed. Knowing what to look for and what to do if and when you’ve spotted fraud is a good way of inoculating yourself from harm.

It’s believed that between ten and twelve percent of all used cars have hidden damage of some kind or another. That’s a tough pill to swallow when you take possession of your “new to you” auto, buffed and polished and detailed until it glimmers, and are taking for granted the assumption that you are getting a cherry deal. Most people assume that sellers of used cars use some sort of rigorous quality control rubric to make sure they are offering only the best for sale, but this is not the case. That car might look like a perfect “10,” but there could be a nasty surprise lurking in its past. It’s a sad fact that cars with a history of serious damage like fires, floods, or major accidents, sometimes end up on dealers’ lots. That by itself is not hard to believe, and that wouldn’t be so bad, if the damage were properly disclosed. Too often, however, these vehicles’ shady pasts get bafflingly erased, leaving no evidence for the new owner that anything catastrophic ever took place. Used car dealers are prone to do everything they can to hide damage when possible, and it’s a fact that gets swept under the rug often enough that many people might not even know what to look for. How can you protect yourself from this type of fraud? You simply have to get to know the signs, so that you have a well-honed sense for if you are being fleeced.

First of all, you should know that you cannot judge a book by its cover when it comes to used cars. Think that your new used car is in beautiful exterior shape, yet the price is shockingly low? (No, you aren’t simply getting a great deal.) Did you run a title check on it through Carfax or a similar service, and it came back totally clear? Surprise! That means nothing. In this situation, you may assume that you are getting a steal and happily fork over the cash to buy the car. You would be making a mistake by ignoring these red flags, however. It may seem like you are getting a great deal, but think again. You may, in fact, be setting yourself up for a frustrating and expensive mess.

I read a story online, linked through an Acura owners’ forum I visited, about a gentleman who test-drove and bought a used Acura that he figured was in perfect condition. The gentleman bought the Acura MDX from a “reputable” used dealer, only to find out that the vehicle had a bent rear sub-frame and a cracked engine block. Not only was the car inspected by Mile High Acura, his local Acura dealership, but he also took the time and spent the money to get his hands on a Carfax report, which indicated the car had never been in an accident. Unfortunately, the used car inspection was not performed carefully. For example, he reports, it turns out that when the inspecting mechanic checks “ok” for alignment, they are only inspecting tire wear.

Let’s talk about Carfax for a moment. People assume that Carfax is like a golden ticket to ensuring that the used car they buy is a cherry, and not a lemon. Well, know this: Carfax is far from foolproof. The Acura guy’s mechanic stated that he fixes structural damage all the time and never reports the work to anyone. How many others like him are out there? Plus, the story goes on to reveal, it appears that if an accident does not generate a police report, it will never find its way into the Carfax database. Often accidents occur and for insurance reasons, owners decide to work things out without engaging insurance companies so that they don’t end up with a jacked-up premium.

What’s really scary is the scale on which is this fraud may be occurring. It’s believed that millions of cars every year are either flood-damaged or totaled in an accident on an annual basis, only to be rebuilt or repaired and then blithely labeled with a fraudulently “clean” title. If you happen to be unlucky enough to end up with one of these cars, trucks, or SUVs, you may be in for a major letdown with very little legal recourse. See, these vehicles are legally supposed to be labeled as “flood titled” or “salvage titled,” letting all prospective future owners know that there have been catastrophic damages in the car’s past. It seems to be a lot easier than you’d think to erase these title blemishes, however. In the worst of cases, the vehicle might actually be unreliable and possibly even unsafe, yet it is presented as a perfectly normal car with a clean past. The fact of the matter is that some of these used car dealers are truly so unscrupulous that they just don’t care about your safety or your family’s safety.

One major source of fraud in the used car industry is called “title washing.” A lot of this took place in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, when who-knows-how-many cars were destroyed by flood waters. Title washing hides the history of a vehicle that’s been salvaged. In the used car industry, salvage titles are those assigned to cars that are have been determined to be a complete and total write-off by insurance companies. Another way you might hear this referred to is as “branding” a vehicle. Don’t be mistaken – branding or salvaging a vehicle doesn’t necessarily mean the car can’t be driven. On the other hand, vehicles branded with salvage titles have lower market values and are difficult to sell. Let’s face it – with that amount of damage, even the best-repaired car is prone to problems further down the road. Like a warm bath, title washing washes away a vehicles branding or salvage status, giving it a squeaky clean title that can then be used to sell the car for a much higher value. Once the branding is eliminated, the car’s value goes up and it’s a lot easier to sell. It’s not rocket science to figure out why so many car owners might be motivated to “wash” their titles.

In terms of a dealership, where there may be hundreds of thousands of dollars of difference in the longterm between washed and unwashed titles, title washing allows dealers and individuals to remove salvage branding from car titles to minimize their losses. Titles are washed by transferring a salvaged vehicle to a state that doesn’t recognize the brand, all the better to erase the vehicle’s spotty history for good. When the state issues a new title, it may no longer show that it had been salvaged. If not, the seller will move it from state to state until the branding is gone. When it is, the vehicle’s history will have been “washed” clean. It’s like a form of money laundering, only for vehicles instead. Picture the underworld version of a car wash, if you will.

You would really be amazed at the extent to which crooks will go to wash a vehicle’s title. A damaged car may just be bought and sold through two or three different owners in different states might erase the salvage label off a car’s title. The pros say that shady dealers and individuals might twist these legal loopholes to their advantage. They might buy a salvaged car in Florida, register it in Alabama, then relocate to North Carolina and re-register it. By the time it’s arrived at that last destination, it is no longer considered a salvage vehicle… despite the fact that this process can be executed very quickly and that the car may be in no better shape than it was when it was salvaged. The loser is the person who unsuspectingly buys the car with a flooded past or a sloppily re-welded frame, not knowing that their vehicle is inherently unsafe at this point. The Acura buyer I mentioned earlier found out that not only had his car been involved in an accident that had shattered the windows of both doors, but the frames of said doors were filled with broken glass.

It’s not as if this is a problem that the government hasn’t taken pains to fix, mind you. Back in 1982, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System was created with the intention of uniting state departments of motor vehicles with an electronic link and obliging auto insurers to disclose information when cars are considered to be totaled. In the insurance industry, this usually comes about if a vehicle has lost at least three-quarters of its value due to damages. The problem is that there are delays in reporting and in updating the system. At present, it can take over three months for a vehicle to be re-titled as a salvage. That gives unscrupulous dealers plenty of time to pull the little trick on the car’s title by either registering it in several different states or by bringing it to states with lenient laws on titling cars.

A proposed law would have put a serious damper in this little game, reducing the turnaround time on updating the system to just seven days. This would have made it almost impossible for crooks to “wash” the title of a damaged car, since car insurers would now be required to electronically notify vehicle-history providers like Carfax of the VIN numbers of totaled vehicles within one week of the incident. Unfortunately, the so-called “”Damaged Vehicle Information Act” made no headway in 2010 or 2011. It remains to be seen whether 2012 will be the year that Congress gets their act together and really takes a stand for the safety of used car buyers.

Let’s not be mistaken, though: crooks always had and always will have a back-up plan waiting in the wings. An alternative to the aforementioned racket is the practice of “title washing,” in which a seller illicitly transfers the vehicle serial number plates from a “clean” (read: undamaged) vehicle to a repaired vehicle, giving thousands of dollars of value back to a car, truck, or SUV that would otherwise have hemorrhaged resale value as a marked “salvage only” vehicle. A lack of uniform state laws regarding the rules for salvaged vehicles is what’s needed, says Loretta Worters of the Insurance Information Institute.

In states like my home of Florida, a tendency towards severe storms has led to the adoption of strict laws regarding how the titles of flood-salvaged vehicles must be labeled. If a car has been flood-damaged and rebuilt, the buyer must be notified through a written disclosure that there was water damage in the car’s past. Unfortunately, not all states are this aggressive. The end result is an unfortunate tendency towards certain states becoming what Worters calls “a dumping ground for undeclared flood vehicles.”

How exactly can you protect yourself as a buyer, if you can’t even trust the title of the car or truck you are buying? Worters’ recommendation is that you thoroughly investigate a vehicle’s comprehensive history and service records with either AutoCheck (which compares state records to a vehicle’s purchase history and service records), CarChex (which recommends mechanics from a nationwide network who will scrutinize used vehicles for harm from water or accidents), Carfax (the ever-popular option, which flags salvage vehicles by matching identification numbers against public DMV records), or The National Insurance Crime Bureau, which is a great resource for finding out whether a specific car has ever been reported stolen or as a salvage vehicle.

Title washing is a dirty trick but consumers can do an AutoCheck or CarFax VIN Check which track a vehicle’s history even if it’s moved to another state. Once a vehicle has been branded and that information is reported to AutoCheck, it remains in their records no matter how many states it’s sold in. The title may no longer indicate severe damage, but a vehicle history report will. “Washing” a title doesn’t wash away computer records. Keep in mind that title washed vehicles are sold by individual sellers as well as car dealers. Don’t assume that because you are purchasing a car on a lot that it’s title hasn’t been washed clean. If you can, obtain a title guarantee from the dealer in writing. This shouldn’t be difficult if the seller is a reputable dealer.

As obnoxious, unethical, and devastating as it can be to find out that your car was a salvage that was covered up, it can be just as bad to willingly take possession of a salvage vehicle that is properly marked. It’s important to keep in mind how egregiously you can get shafted as a driver by ending up with a vehicle that is branded a salvage. True, you could save thousands of dollars… and this can be tempting, if you are short on cash and have some mechanical expertise. Unfortunately, it’s likely that you will end up paying back every cent of that savings when it comes to insuring that vehicle. Many standard car insurance companies will refuse to write a full-coverage policy on a flooded or salvaged car. It’s possible that you might be able to obtain liability-only car insurance coverage on such a vehicle, but few insurers will venture to provide collision or comprehensive auto insurance coverage. Why is this? Because, let’s face it, these cars are just inherently unsafe.

Flooded cars in particular remain dangerous even after a thorough repair, say the experts. There is virtually no way to completely rid the vehicle of all moisture, which will get you in trouble where it seeps in out of sight. The modules of the vehicle, its air bags, the seat belts, and any/all electronic components are especially vulnerable to dampness, and may never again work properly or safely after a dunking.

It’s important that used-car buyers stay alert and aware of the fact that a vehicle’s history can be all-too-easily fabricated. Modern-day vehicle history services have lulled drivers into a false sense of security, thinking that they are protected from unsafe vehicles by a database. In fact, experts confirms, these reports don’t always provide sufficient information about how a car was damaged to determine whether it is safe to drive. Even if you know about the damage, there’s no saying that you can adequately determine if it is safe, anyway. Be careful when purchasing a vehicle with an out-of-state title, or which appears to have been shipped to several states within a short period of time. You might become the victim of a title-washing scam.

It seems sometimes like there are no more good and honest people left in the world. That was the feeling I was left with after reading an infographic on the website of major American insurance company Allstate’s website having to do with different types of auto insurance scams. I guess it had never occurred to me that people would go so far out of their way to rip off other drivers and their insurance companies. When you think of insurance fraud having to do with autos, you probably think of people damaging their own cars or hiring someone to set them on fire or something – I know that’s what I think of. But there are a slew of ways that scammy people will try to separate you with your money, and they tend to do it using their cars. Be on the lookout so that you don’t end up fooled by one of these gimmicks!

When you are on unemployment insurance and feeling discouraged by the daily grind of hunting for a job, getting an actual job interview can be a real shock to the system. Someone wants you! Once you get that all-important call, the important thing is to figure out what you will be wearing. If you have been schlubbing around the house for several months, this can be more challenging than you might think. What to wear? There are lots of TV shows and books dedicated to this fundamental question, but jobseekers have a quandary more intense than the norm. After all, most folks’ future livelihood doesn’t hinge on what they pull out of the closet!