Several commenters are eager to know what happened with the car. The answer is that I finally succeeded in registering it . . . yesterday. That's right, I did indeed purchase it August 3rd.
Sequence of events:
1. Megan buys car
2. Megan goes to get temporary plates in order to drive car back from Florida. DC DMV informs her that she cannot get a driver's license (a necessary prelude to temporary plates) because she is a wanted woman in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a 16-year-old underaged drinking offense that in no way involved a motor vehicle.
3. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania tells her that she may, at her leisure, mail in a check for the privilege of serving her three months license suspension for the underaged consumption of alcoholic beverages. No one in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania appears to find the prospect of a 35 year old having her license suspended for drinking underaged the least bit odd.
4. After much begging, she is granted temporary tags by DC. She picks up car in Florida.
5. Attempts to rectify situation with Pennsylvania without serving a three months license suspension met with much righteous indignation from Commonwealth employees.
6. Car accidentally driven through red light in Logan Circle.
7. Mother manages to pick car out of all other cars on 15th Street to swerve into and crack side view mirror.
8. Day after mirror crackage, temporary tags expire. Car, which now cannot legally be driven on streets, put in garage of kind sister, whose own car is too big to fit.
9. Several months of unsatisfactory wrangling pass with Commonwealth. Angry DMV employees stick to guns, claim that attempts to bypass system are sheer egotistical requests for favoritism.
10. Red light ticket, her first moving violation ever, is paid.
11. After receiving six emails from people in the same plight, Megan actually researches relevant statutes. These seem to indicate that in fact, the Commonwealth is in violation of the law, which gives them no power to suspend the license of non-drivers in the event that they ever get one; rather, it allows them to prevent non-drivers from getting a learner's permit. Livid, she writes a snotty letter to both the DOT and their press office, inquiring as to the reasoning behind their actions.
12. The suspension is quickly reversed, leaving only a $25 reinstatement fee. The reply from the staff lawyer indicates that there is no reasoning, and that everything she has been told by PennDOT employees is clearly wrong. Rather, it simply seems to be easier to screw people and fix the illegality if the person they're screwing turns out to be important, and/or a member of the press who can broadcast their illegal actions. (Consider them broadcast).
13. Fine is paid. To be sure, it adds insult to injury, but it's not worth fighting about.
14. Car is driven to the DMV, where she is informed that she cannot register it because New York now has a hold on her license.
15. Inquiry reveals that the hold is related to the Logan Circle ticket. Presumably, the check was received late and the fine doubled, causing the DC DMV to reject the check. Ticket is paid; proof is faxed to New York. Car waits in sister's garage for another five days while notice clears their system.
16. Thanksgiving
17. Car flunks inspection because of cracked mirror.
18. Megan begs DC DMV employees to give her another set of temporary tags so she can drive car to nearest dealership in Sterling, VA (near Dulles) to fix it. DMV employees tell her that head office believed that local DMV managers were being too promiscuous with tags, and have now set up computer to reject any and all requests for a second set of temporary tags.
19. Dealership is called. Next available appointment is after New Year's.
20. For $30, a glue on mirror is ordered from the Internet.
21. Christmas
22. Glue-on miror arrives.
23. Moving.
24. New Year's.
25. Glue-on mirror attempted and found too small.
26. Car taken to dealership. Mirror repaired. Car driven to DMV, where it is discovered that half the supporting documentation is out of date.
27. Running around city getting copies of new lease, etc.
28. At 2:30, Megan emerges triumphantly from DC DMV, car registered a scant five months after initial purchase. Comforts self with thought of all the equity she has built up, making payments while it sat unused in sister's garage.
Update: To those somehow convinced that this is all my fault because I let my temporary tags expire/ran a red light/ordered the wrong sized mirror, let me clarify. The reason my tags expired is that temporary tags in the district run for one month, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania refused, during that time, to release the hold on my driver's license. In the District of Columbia it is not--or so I was repeatedly told--possible to register a car with an out-of-district license; and due to federal regulations, they could not issue me a license while Pennsylvania still had a hold.
The red light I plead guilty to, but that particular light is a longstanding problem that DC has so far failed to rectify--it's badly placed, and consequently a lot of motorists, including me, miss it. The failure to fix the problem suggests to some that this is less an attempt to manage traffic than an attempt to manage revenue.
As for the mirror, I ordered the mirror specified for the make and model of my car. I'm not sure how a vendor supplying the wrong mirror is something I could have fixed.
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Well...all's well that ends well? No?
This is one of those stories where my father would hear about all the set backs, sit back, and tell me, "so many little problems cannot be a coincidence, these things do not happen to those who are prepared. Such a collection of misfortunes, if truly random, could not fall on to one person by chance. The probability of it is simply unrealistic. Ultimately, somewhere, you, yourself, are the root of all these mishaps. It is the only way this story makes sense."
To which I reply, "This is why none of your other kids like to talk to you."
Sterling represent! I hope while you were out here (BMW? Can't think of which dealerships are out here that aren't also somewhere closer in), you stopped by one of our lovely, um, chain restaurants.
Let's pass Universal / Single Payer Health Care so that we can have the same thing happen to medical treatment.
Government bureaucracy: the client is confronted with micromanagement and mistrust; the client’s time is devalued.
Contrast this with the treatment of a professional employee in the workplace: the employee is trusted; the employee’s time is valuable ($50+/hour); rules are flexible and are interpreted to remove obstacles.
Has any modern governmental entity – federal, state, local -- succeeded in creating a bureaucracy that approaches the private sector, in valuing the client’s time? Where rules are flexible and are interpreted to remove obstacles?
My sympathies, but
1) Don't be so pleased it's your first ticket ever. You haven't had a car/driven a hell of a lot either, no? So ticket/drive ratio sucks.
2) Fer cryin' out loud, all the tools available on the Internet and you ordered the wrong frickin' mirror? Goofball.
Let's pass Universal / Single Payer Health Care so that we can have the same thing happen to medical treatment.
Posted by Kevin P. | January 11, 2009 2:25 PM
But but but..... thats just the DMV and petty bureaucrats. I am sure those people involved in granting your health care solutions won't be that much of a problem, right?
This is why I ride a bike.
The frightening thing: while you lived oblivious to the now-known to be illegal license suspension, it lived out there, in public-records data bases, for all your potential creditors and lendors to judge you with.
Privacy for such offenses does not exist.
Driving is definitely not for everyone.
As my parents would tell me, why did you not have the tags for the car, when it was expiring the next day? Don't wait until the last minute and you won't have these problems. Secondly, just drive it illegally to the dealership and get it fixed. If pulled over by a cop (who generally have way more leeway than any DMV employee) explain that you are on your way to get your mirror fixed so you can register the car.
And on the health insurance snark. You get the same run around with private health insurance companies, that you'd get with government health insurance. You really think those employees are paid to approve your claims?
Megan,
I totally can not wait until these people are running the medical system.
Can not wait.
Something tells me reading the same sort of chronology of events with respect to, say, a burst appendix or kidney transplant will not be as amusing.
Wow. Dealing with this reads like living through a car wreck on steroids.
Congratulations and safe driving.
Some lawyers might have profitable fun suing the State of Pennsylvania on your behalf?
why the heck did you have to pick up the car in florida if you live in d.c. and your family is in pennsylvania? aren't there car dealerships in d.c.?
Was that Logan Circle ticket at the right turn onto P street? I've see people accidentally run that light all the time - in fact, if you look closely at the street view of the circle you'll see somebody in the process of doing just that:
http://tinyurl.com/9jk2d9
I understand that owning a car may not have been necessary in most of the places you have lived. But I look at maintaining a valid driver's license much like the ability to swim -- even if you never expect to use it, it's something all adults should possess, just in case. Pennsylvania may have had a bogus claim against you, but most of these problems could have been easily avoided had you not waited two decades to clear it up.
Just think how great it will be when we all get health care this way!
2. Megan goes into to have her appendix removed, but is told she must first finish her state-assigned rehab from a sprained ankle suffered when she was 15 before she is eligible for any additional heath care.
...
18. Megan suffers two head injuries on the same day, the second of which appears to have cracked her skull. On her second visit, Department of Health Care employees tell her that head office believed that local DHC managers were being too promiscuous with MRIs, and have now set up computer to reject any and all requests for a second set of MRIs.
To get a government issued photo ID you need your birth certificate.
To get your birth certificate, you must have a valid government issued photo ID.
DMV employees are proof that babies born with anencephaly can survive to adulthood.
OK, here's my story. We change insurance companies. I receive a letter from the California DMV that my registration is suspended because I'm not insured. I get a certificate of insurance from the insurance carrier, and go to the DMV with it. They won't register the vehicle because the Governator has outsourced registration and it is now done in Ohio. I can go to Ohio, or phone them. I call some number there and they inform me that it isn't registered because my VIN is wrong. Consult with the insurer, they typed it in wrong. Go get it fixed. Get a new certificate of insurance. Call Ohio again, now I can fax in my certificate, pay $14, and be registered. But for California, with 35 million population, there are two fax lines. Try to fax the thing about thirty times, no luck. Stay up until 3:00am. Try the fax. It's a miracle, the thing works. A week later I have my registration. Moral: government health care, what?
From what I read, this is the kind of thing that goes on in third world countries all the time. Eventually, people just ignore the laws or bribe the officials.
"Some lawyers might have profitable fun suing the State of Pennsylvania on your behalf?"
(eye roll) Sovereign immunity. Look it up.
Or to respond to all questions in highly idiomatic Mexican Spanish, like we do in So. California.
These people already run the Veterans Administration's health care system, and the results are pretty much as one would expect. The liberals can take their socialized medicine plan and shove it up their universal singer-payer orifices.
-jcr
Next set of entries:
Jan 15th: Car stolen, used in armed car robbery.
Jan 16th: SWAT Team invades apartment at 3:00 AM and arrests me, my protests of innocence fall on deaf ears.
Jan 19th: My lawyer visits me in jail and informs me that a plea deal is the best way to go. He takes it personally when I try to jab a ball point pen into his neck in response to his legal handling of my case.
Jan 20th: Released on bail. DA points out to the judge my obvious record of reckless drinking going back to age 16. My lawyer throws a body block as I try the neck-ballpoint thing on a second person in two days. He decides its time to up his hourly rate.
Jan 21th: Atlantic Magazine calls and wants to know whats behind my lack of posting, when I respond with the aforementioned facts they tell me that liars always elaborate and want recompense for the missing time where I should have been posting.
Jan 22: I now find myself in need of a phone, wallboard plaster and drywall, since the last phone I had went crashing through the wall yesterday. Home depot informs me that my account has been frozen, due to identity theft.
If you were an illegal alien the fines would have been waived, an interpreter provided to do the paperwork, and the state would have provided a stipend to compensate you for the inconvenience of public transportation.
Get your butt down here to the south where you won't have to put up with that crap! Only a perfunctory emissions check in the greater metropoli, and hand-written 'tag applied for' seems to fend off johnny law, gauging by the cars in traffic around me...
At lest with private insurance, you can tell them to go to hell and switch companies. I've never been able to tell the government to go to hell -- because there is no alternative.
It would be a great experiment in democracy if we had, say, 50 different governments, and we could choose any of them we liked to live in. Just a few simple rules to define how everyone must be treated, with diversity encouraged. Wouldn't that be something better than this idiotic, one-size-fits-all Great Nanny in DC?
BTW, a tip for any Californians who have to deal with this crap. Join AAA, and go to their offices for any and all DMV paperwork that they're allowed to handle. The difference is, AAA employees work for their members, and here's the key: they can be fired if they don't do their jobs.
-jcr
Nonsense. I know. From experience with both.
My daughter has a rare life threatening condition that was covered by my insurance when she was a minor. The private insurance was no hassle. In fact they were wonderful. She received treatment from a doctor in Boston that was considered one of the best in his field. When she went on government insurance she spent 2 years getting them to approve treatments. Two years her life was in serious jeopardy because of bureaucratic idiots who didn't give a crap.
I live within spitting distance of Canada. I have 2 Canadian friends who are no longer with us due to waiting times of that wonderful government run system.
Bottom line is government health insurance is turning your health care over to the politicians. Politicians will fund the part of health care that provides the most votes.IOW, they will fund primary care so if you get a cold you will be able to see a doctor without a problem. Just don't get real sick. There are not a lot of votes available in that part of medicine.
JordanT: "why did you not have the tags for the car, when it was expiring the next day? Don't wait until the last minute and you won't have these problems."
She didn't wait until the last minute, and that's the point. She'd been trying to get tags from the first moment she got the car, but the DMV and associated entities gave her the runaround until the temps expired and beyond.
I am always musing on how I can walk into a fast food joint, order and eat within two minutes. The food comes from a supply chain that often reaches half way around the world, is (generally) kept in a state of reasonably cleanliness and safety for that time, and is delivered fast and cheap by attentive workers paid very little. The transaction is almost always easy, cheap and results in the desired outcome.
At the DMV, I am seeking something made out of paper and laminate. They issue the same thing hundreds of times in the course of a day. Yet I wait hours. I am frequently made to return once, maybe twice, beyond the initial visit. It costs me a shitload of money and the staff is rude and seems unable to complete simple tasks and unwilling to try in many cases. The staff is also receiving government wages, benefits and holiday schedules.
The difference is, of course, competition. Imagine a world where chains competed with each other for DMV business? Seriously, is there any reason why goverment services like that could not be put out to private contractors? I don't see any. Even the security concerns seem pretty minimal once you emply audits on a regular basis to ensure compliance with even the current challenge and confirmation procedures employed by those slack-jawed DMV workers.
Heck, we trust flying 747s to private industry, why not driver's licenses?
Congrats.
Sadly, my 1-year old Xterra was the recipient a nice little cigarette burn in the driver's seat upholstery this weekend. I'm blaming the cherry falling off on these damn so-called "fire safe cigarettes" which our thoughtful (PA) legislature has mandated as of 2009.
Can anyone suggest a way to fix the burn? I'm OK with something temporary for now, but when I go to sell the vehicle (not for a while, I hope) I'd like it to look like it never happened. Kind of hard to claim you didn't smoke in the vehicle with obvious stitches right between the driver's legs...
Hmmm. If I have the chronology right, you would have had your tags two months earlier if you had just served your suspension like a good little girl.
In many cases, in dealing with a bureaucracy, it is a mistake to try and get something done right once it has been done wrong. You have to try to think through the possible outcomes.
In this situation, it should have been obvious that it would take more than 3 months to get the bureaucracy to figure things out.
And exactly what result do you expect from "broadcasting" their illegal actions? Think they are going to change their procedures? Think you can do anything to make them?
Thanks for the update on your car. Happy motoring!!
Whatever happened to your friends with the problem refrigerator?
jeff says: If you were an illegal alien the fines would have been waived, an interpreter provided to do the paperwork, and the state would have provided a stipend to compensate you for the inconvenience of public transportation.
What jeff said.
Also, this post isn't really an argument against UHC. It's an argument against bureaucracy; a non-corrupt UHC plan (i.e., one not designed to give out jobs to bureaucrats in order to obtain power from their unions) could include plans to streamline the bureaucracy, expedite appeals, and so forth.
While arguing against possible snafus might work, something more salient is to point out that millions of those "Americans" who'd receive benefits are actually citizens of foreign countries who are here illegally.
Of course, Megan and Insty can't do that, since that's one of the subsidies that those supposed libertarians support.
All you evil right-wing types(TM) are rubbing your hands in glee, comparing Megan's DMV experience to what gummint health care will be like.
Well you're wrong. Gummint health care won't be like that at all.
It will be much, MUCH more expensive and frustrating.
"this post isn't really an argument against UHC. It's an argument against bureaucracy; a non-corrupt UHC plan (i.e., one not designed to give out jobs to bureaucrats in order to obtain power from their unions) could include plans to streamline the bureaucracy, expedite appeals, and so forth."
_______________
Oh, if only it were true. Veterans of the DOD medical system will tell you otherwise. Everything from base pharmacies that don't stock the latest drugs or refuse to give you the generic or a substitute because "that's not what your civilian specialist wrote down" to not allowing you to schedule an appointment in person when you are standing in front of the desk. Instead, you must go outside and call the person you were just talking to inside. Your "primary care" physician is a rent-a-doc you might see twice before he or she moves on. Trips to a civilian specialist are complicated by referral approvals that choose your specialist for you and don't cover followup visits or consequent referrals from the specialist without going back to the primary care doc - whom you can't see for two weeks. Not to mention filling out the same medical questionaires time after time after time, since, of course, your medical records are scattered from here to Sunday and nobody bothers to make copies or forward them to any central location.
Oh, yes, it's really great. I think everyone will enjoy it.
America : land of the free. What a joke that phrase is. More like a police state now. Glad I don't live there...
This is why I'm glad I'm active duty military and register my vehicles away from Virginia. I have no problem registering my vehicles.
I'm a veteran from the early '80's...
I blew out my knees in the USMC...was told to get them fixed by Vet Admin...I've been waiting since my medical discharge, in 1984 (June), to get the ACL tears repaired...
There are morons who want to make this same system universal..and "free" for all Americans...
Not for me...I paid to have it done last year...but I'm still waiting for my appointment w/the VA.
Rich Vail, Pikesville, MD USA
Great story.
Ah DC. I got a ticket there back in 2004 for illegally parking in China Town. Now there are a few problems with this:
I have not driven in DC since 1992 and even then I never drove in that part of the city. I lived in California at the time the ticket was given and I don't own a brown colored Buick as listed on the ticket.(Honestly, who drives a brown Buick anyway?) I suppose that it is possible that I left work on Friday and drove non-stop across the country just to park illegally in DC. Then, after receiving the ticket, I hopped back in the auto voiture and blazed back to California so that my co workers would be non the wiser to my weekend of hijinks. Of course that would have meant that I would have needed to maintain an average speed of approximately 117 MPH...
Despite all the evidence to the contrary the fine folks in DC still asserted that I was liable for the ticket and just kept jacking up the fine each time I tried to contest it. Helpfully, they suggested that I might fly back to DC to 'Have my day in court.' Alas, I studied and passed elementary math and divined that a $120.00 ticket was cheaper to pay that a $600.00 round trip ticket to contest the charges. After months of trying to get this straightened out I finally paid the ticket and considered the fine an investment in my mental health.
A brown Buick? Really? Arrrrgghhhh!
If you have a pre-existing condition you cannot just switch insurance companies when you get bad service.
The other day a bunch of kids were hanging out in the alley outside my house...when they starting urinating on the walls I called the police who arrived in just over 5 minutes to a non-emergency call.
Comcast makes the DMV look like a model of customer service perfection. Competition from RCN hasn't helped.
The Georgetown DMV got me my DC driver's license in just over an hour in the middle of a weekday, and everything went smoothly. The license plates for our new car arrived on time.
AT&T has messed up my bill every time I've made a change to my account...3 out of 3 times in the past year.
Anecdotes are fun.
Harrisburg has some strange aversion to fax machines (!). Seriously.
When the 100% taxpayer-funded, $30M convention center was built in center city Philly, it had no fax machines.
The PA DMV still has no fax machines -- and there are certain services (such as handicapped placards) which can't be done through a 3rd party.
And last month I submitted an unclaimed property request. Paperwork could be emailed but not faxed. Of course, it's easier to punch in 10 digits than to set up the scanner, save the file, and type an email address.
Bottom line: you as a taxpayer, bill payer, claimant, or user of services are not the customer. Governments do not respond to market forces.
Here in Texas you need proof of insurance to get license plates, vehicle inspection, and a driver license. I would like the state to delegate vehicle registration and the issuing of license plates to insurance companies to allow the convenience of one-stop shopping with competition among many insurance/license plate suppliers. The insurance company could then put their logo on their license plates for advertising and if you don't pay for your car insurance, the insurance company repos the plates. Shopping conveniece that would just about eliminate the uninsured motorist problem too.
The difference is, of course, competition. Imagine a world where chains competed with each other for DMV business? Seriously, is there any reason why goverment services like that could not be put out to private contractors?
Drivers' licenses and vehicle registrations should be the purview of auto insurance companies, not the state. The government should mandate that drivers have licenses and vehicles are registered and have insurance coverage, but let the market actually provide them; insurance companies have a significant interest in the quality of their customers' ability to operate a motor vehicle safely and will thus tend to manage driver training and licensure responsibly.
yours/
peter.
punditious:
"In many cases, in dealing with a bureaucracy, it is a mistake to try and get something done right once it has been done wrong. You have to try to think through the possible outcomes."
Yes, the first question to ask is "how can I fix this?" and then "is there anything you can do to help me" and hopefully you've come in contact with someone who likes a challenge.
Not likely, but a cowering "my goodness, how could I have been so stupid" attitude helps.
MikeS -- ohmyyes. I have a few "complicated" health issues and I've found Tricare Prime a holy mess... if you try to go through "proper" channels, that is. I have no pull because of rank - my husband retired as a SSG because he was... um, a bit of a trouble maker. But, I can learn. And I figured out that the PCM's nurse has a LOT of power. Number one, he/she can get you an appt. and get your prescriptions refilled.
Make friends with your PCM's nurse, who is often the same person even when your PCM changes.
Best of luck to ya!
And, may I say that I take pleasure in registering my car in one state, living in another, and having my driver's license issued by a third?
I like the claim that Megan builds up equity while the car awaits the glacial movement of the bureaucracy. Unless it is a 60s muscle car, I don't think it's possible for a car to appreciate. I drive a 22 year-old family heirloom. As long as it runs, it probably doesn't depreciate, but it certainly doesn't appreciate. Tomorrow I go in to have the axle boots and 1 axle replaced. First set replaced Sep. 1998.
New cars drop 20-50% the minute you drive off the lot.
Contrast this with the treatment of a professional employee in the workplace: the employee is trusted; the employee’s time is valuable ($50+/hour); rules are flexible and are interpreted to remove obstacles.
LOL!
I realize you must not be a Consumerist reader, genius, but don't you read this blog, either?
"Rules are flexible"? Priceless! It's like I'm talking to someone who hasn't spent money (or tried to) at an American business anytime in the past 50 years.
My anecdote: 10 years ago we moved to the state of New York. So we go the the DMV to get our NY driver's license and register our cars. In other states we just presented our current driver's license, filled out the form, maybe took the written exam, and got our license. In the Empire State, however they use a point system. One needs to show other identification adding up to a certain number of points (if I recall correctly 6). I showed my passport and everything was fine. However, My wife's passport had expired and we hadn't yet renewed it. Some of her identification had her married name, some her maiden name, some had her name hyphenated, some had it with a middle initial, some did not. Plus her out of state professional license didn't count. Finally the supervisor did a supervisor's override and we got her driver's license. While in the supervisor's office I muttered about red tape. The supervisor's response was "welcome to New York." She then added this is the worse that you will experience -- well unless you try to open a business.
And the politicians in the Empire State wonder why business is leaving the state.
My wife and I had to rely on the national health care system in The Netherlands while assigned there. The medical analogies to the auto licensing snafu are apt. Except that the outcome can be permanent injury or death, not a car stuck in a garage for five months.
And, no, you can't sue the doctor...he/she/it is protected by the State.
By the way, as long as we're on DMV horror stories, if you're a US military member working and living in The Netherlands and your car is stolen, the government charges YOU an amount equal to the tax you would have paid had you purchased the car in that country. One office mate had both his cars stolen in one day and got a bill for $15,000US from the Dutch government the following month. Fortunately, USAA (probably the most popular insurance company among military folks) pays it for you, but the Dutch WILL get their money. It helps pay for their social "services," I guess. Fortunately, Virginia hasn't heard about that process...yet.
You poor people are gonna loooove ObamaCare. Heh.
Megan,
It is your patriotic duty to create work for the increasing ranks of public sector employees, who have to be paid more than the private sector, and have more job security.
Your attempts to shirk from your patriotic duty to support the public sector jobs program are very unpatriotic.
Solution to lots of life's problems (other than auto industry's and unions'): no more car.
Megan,
Good thing that this happened AFTER you moved out of NYC. In NYC, your ticket would force you to go to the so-called ADJUDICATION court, where the adjusticate judge (i.e., a unsuccessful alcoholic lawyer) would tell you what had happened to you regardless of your own opinion on the matter. Then he/she would give you the maximum fine, would add points to your license, and would subject you to ANNUAL DRIVER RESPONSIBILITY ASSESSMENT for having your license suspended in the first place. You'd probably be allowed not to pay late fees for the past 19 years. All in all, you'd probably be out of $500, you'd have to serve the two-months suspension, and you'd lose just the same amount of time.
Nothing new here, move along, folks. I grew up in D.C., graduated from college there and worked there for a few years (while living in the suburbs). Moved south pretty soon thereafter.
I'd have to say that anyone going through something like this has no basis to complain; living in D.C. constitutes a self-inflicted wound.
The real problem is that government is, for the most part, exactly like this everywhere.
Re: Let's pass Universal / Single Payer Health Care so that we can have the same thing happen to medical treatment.
Universal healthcare and single payor are two different concepts. A universal healthcare system would not need to involve the government directly any more than we already do in healthcare.
Re: To get your birth certificate, you must have a valid government issued photo ID.
Not true. You can order it from the issuing authority by mail, no ID needed (You do need to supply the info that is on the birth certificate: your name, parents names, birth date and place.)
Re: Get your butt down here to the south where you won't have to put up with that crap!
Indeed. Meagan should have just registered the car in Florida where she bought it. It's easy and fairly cheap to do so.
Re: At lest with private insurance, you can tell them to go to hell and switch companies.
Huh? Maybe you can tell them to go to hell, but in the real world you're pretty much stuck with what your employer offers.
Re: I've never been able to tell the government to go to hell
Sure you can.
Re: You poor people are gonna loooove ObamaCare.
"Obamacare" preserves the current insurance system intact, building on it, not replacing it.
Educate yourself.
Please identify the person who forced you to let your temporary tags expire, run a red light and order the wrong mirror. That person is the villain of the piece.
To all the oh-so-subtle and oh-so-intelligent people who drew the health care analogy: do you find it plausible that people are literally dying all over the place in Denmark and Ireland Canada and every other industrial-advanced-democratic society because of stories like the ones you are concocting out if thin air?
Come on. You are wiser than this.
Megan,
Thanks for the update. I will be able to rest easier now knowing that your Mini is properly registered.
BTW, state BMVs amazingly can be fixed. In Indiana, the average BMV branch visit is down to 8 minutes, and numerous transactions, such as plate renewal, can be performed online for a reduced fee.
Ostap: my temporary tags expired because they were for one month, and Pennsylvania would not release the hold on my driver's license. According to DMV employees, it is not possible to register a car with an out-of-district license.
The red light, I plead guilty to, but that red light gets run all the time precisely because, as a previous commenter mentioned, it's very badly placed. It is not unreasonably believed that it stays where it is because it is a big moneymaker for the district.
And the mirror I ordered was the mirror for my car. It just didn't fit, and by the time I had installed it and found it wanting, it was faster to go to the dealer than hassle with the vendor.
Universal healthcare and single payor are two different concepts. A universal healthcare system would not need to involve the government directly any more than we already do in healthcare.
Exactly, universal care could also be provided by magical space unicorns. People really don't consider all the available options before assuming only the government could force coverage for everyone.
Huh? Maybe you can tell them to go to hell, but in the real world you're pretty much stuck with what your employer offers.
You can find another job, or persuade your employer to find another insurance company.
"Obamacare" preserves the current insurance system intact, building on it, not replacing it. Educate yourself.
O ye of little economic understanding! I despair at the thought of you running around not understanding what happens when the gov't subsidizes something.
Let's say you run a business, and tomorrow you find out you don't need to offer insurance to employees because if you don't the gummint will do it for you. What happens next?
do you find it plausible that people are literally dying all over the place in Denmark and Ireland Canada and every other industrial-advanced-democratic society because of stories like the ones you are concocting out if thin air?
YES! It happens every single day. Why do you think there is an antire industry in Canada built around shuttling people to the U.S. to get the health care their gov't refuses to pay for?
I don't know where socialists get this weird idea that gov't rationing leads to better health care, but I suspect Walter Duranty could get another Pulitzer for explaining it if he weren't already in hell being tormented by Ukrainian peasants.
Really funny post. Sad, but funny.
Welcome to the District. While we lived there (1999-2005), our daughter Crystal was hired to help open up the first-ever Vespa franchise in DC (the one on Wisconsin Avenue, just down from Whole Foods). One of her responsibilities was to gather information about Vespa scooter drivers license, registration requirements, and traffic laws from Virginia, Maryland, and the District. As you can imagine, the first two efforts went fine, but the third was a nightmare. Crystal soon knew more about DC scooter regulations that the people at the DC DMV did themselves, she would often get different answers each time she called, and key people at the DMV soon knew her by name and refused to take her calls.
In the end, though, Crystal had put together an information packet for all their customers that explained in detailed just what they needed to do in order to have the proper drivers license and registration for their Vespas, as well as relevant driving laws, for all three jurisdictions. ..bruce..
First off, you went 17 years without getting a license or a car and suddenly it's a crisis 'cause you have to wait three months to get your license? I'm completely sympathetic to the DMV employees who told you to wait. You basically demand special treatment - because you're a powerful journalist (a blogger?). That's rude, irrationally selfish behavior. Besides, who the hell buys a car (five states away no less) BEFORE they get a license?
Life's a bitch, princess. It took you till your were 35 to realize the DMV sucks. Wait till you get married. You'll have tons of things to complain about then.
Nathan, read the linked article. I HAVE a NY State driver's license; DC wouldn't let me transfer it.
Michiganguy should look it up. Most US states have legislation allowing then to be sued for negigence; and there are many precedents for suing a State official who has acted illegally.
Profitable legal fun is rarely straightforward. I am no expert, so I put in a question mark. But if Megan knows a lawyer who would enjoy doing it, there may well be a claim here.
If you're going to answer me politely when I snark then I'm going to have to stop snarking.
Anyway, I have never heard of anyone outside of Joe Btfsplk who is less liable than you to obtain reasonable service from anyone for anything. If I call the plumber, the plumber shows up and fixes the problem. If you call the plumber, 4 months later you write a 65,000 word irate post about the extended nightmare.
Usually a State that allows itself to be sued for the negligence of its employees does so only in cases where that negligence is the proximate cause of a death or a personal injury, not for merely wasting someone’s time because an employee misinterpreted or misapplied a statute (assuming that’s what actually happened) even if it results in a minor pecuniary loss.
Click on my name for an article about Pennsylvania’s Sovereign Immunity Act and the exceptions.
Oh great, the usual chorus of libertards and conservatards bitching about how this proves that single-payer healthcare would be a bad thing. Perhaps single-payer would be a bad thing, I don't know, I do know from personal experience that private insurance companies, CIGNA as an example, do everything they can to prevent paying on claims. They love getting policy holder money but if you try to get some back from them, you know, because you've been in an accident, the kind of thing that you bought insurance for, it's every bit as much of a pain in the ass as dealing with a government agency.
There are just as many stupid, uncaring and unthinking bureaucrats in the private sector as there are in the public, and those private sector types work just as hard as the public sector types to insulate themselves from transparency or accountability to the people they're supposed to be serving. I find it interesting that when Megan posted her screed about Sears not fixing her washing machine that not a single person posted any stupid screeds about how this was obviously one more reason why the private sector shouldn't handle health care, anyone who did post something like that would have been ridiculed as a fucking retard, just as we should ridicule anyone who posted one of the stupid screeds about health care in response to Megan's drama-queen bitching about the DMV.
P.S. Hint to Megan. Stop being such a fucking drama queen, stop writing about your bullshit interactions with low-level bureaucrats and start writing something interesting. You could have joined AAA and had them tow, free of charge for the price of your membership, the car to a dealer so you could have it repaired, or just driven it there yourself and run the risk of being pulled over for having expired tabs. Instead of taking these incredibly obvious steps you chose to drag this on for months. I can only assume that it is because you wanted to be a victim and/or needed something to write about to get your paycheck and not because you actually wanted to drive your car.
Mike S. wrote (stupidly)
Yeah Mike, and how is what you describe any different than what people with private health insurance deal with every day? What you just described is every single HMO in America, but let me guess, you're OK with HMOs fucking people over and being incompetent because they're in the magical private sector.
Why didn't Megan get a DC drivers license when she moved to DC? Aren't you supposed to?
Comforts self with thought of all the equity she has built up, making payments while it sat unused in sister's garage.
Equity? In a car?
I thought you were an economist. Or maybe it was a joke.
Your story reminds me of Asterix and Obelix! See Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGtBovI735I
I sure hope you like that car. A LOT.
Wile E wins the internets.
There are just as many stupid, uncaring and unthinking bureaucrats in the private sector as there are in the public, and those private sector types work just as hard as the public sector types to insulate themselves from transparency or accountability to the people they're supposed to be serving.
And yet Communism failed. It's a mystery, huh?
I find it interesting that when Megan posted her screed about Sears not fixing her washing machine that not a single person posted any stupid screeds about how this was obviously one more reason why the private sector shouldn't handle health care
Probably because if the state screws up, you can't just go to their competitors to get a driver's license.
Hey, I noticed the Detroit Lions spent tens of millions this year and failed to win a single game. I guess that proves the gov't should run the whole NFL.
Why didn't Megan get a DC drivers license when she moved to DC? Aren't you supposed to?
What Al said. FWIW, all my interactions with DC DMV have been quite pleasant. The longest I've ever spent at DMV was an hour total (waiting, business and all), and the employees have always been courteous to me. Vastly superior to dealing with my insurance company or the bank.
I don't know where socialists get this weird idea that gov't rationing leads to better health care,
Possibly because the European countries that have more socialist systems have better health outcomes than we do?
Yeah Mike, and how is what you describe any different than what people with private health insurance deal with every day? What you just described is every single HMO in America, but let me guess, you're OK with HMOs fucking people over and being incompetent because they're in the magical private sector.
Funny story: I was in an accident in another state and had to have surgery there before I could travel home. My insurance company does not have any "network providers" in that state. Guess who spent five months fighting with her insurance company and thousands of dollars out of pocket because her insurance would not cover procedures performed by out of network providers? And, yes, I followed all the insurance company's rules, called them for approval (I was on hold a loooong time) before I went to the ER at all, etc.
Also, I have a condition for which there is only one "network" specialist in the entire metropolitan area I live in. There are lots and lots of specialists for this condition in the area, but the insurance company makes life so difficult for them that they refuse to deal with it, so anyone who needs these types of services has to pay out of pocket.
And I'm very lucky to have very good employer-provided health insurance!
Why didn't Megan get a DC drivers license when she moved to DC? Aren't you supposed to?
Why don't you people read the post before you comment? The answer to this great question is contained in both the original post and at least two comments.
Re: Let's say you run a business, and tomorrow you find out you don't need to offer insurance to employees because if you don't the gummint will do it for you. What happens next?
Um, think again.
Why do businesses offer health benefits to workers to begin with? Not for altruistic reasons. They do so in order to attract workers. After all, right now there is no formal compulsion on them to insure their workers; any company that wanted to save money could do so by cancelling the employee health insurance plan. Some even do that, but only when they are desperate. Under Obama's plan they won't be able to save anywhere near as much if they cancel their insurance plan (since they will have to pay into the uninsured fund, however it's structured), so they would have less incentive to cancel employee insurance than they do right now. Meanwhile, if the proposed public plan is as bad as you claim it will be, people will not want it unless they too are desperate, and sheer inertia will operate to keep them in the current arrangements too. (The model for this would be public transportation; it's there if you really need it, but most people prefer their own car). They will prefer to keep their current insurance and if their employer does cancel it they will look elsewhere for jobs (just as they would now), giving the employer an incentive not to cancel. The only way the great mass of people will move into the public plan is if it really does provide superior coverage, in which case what's the problem? It would seem you are the one who either does not understand how markets work, or lacks faith in those markets and the eceonomic choices of your fellow citizens just as many on the Left do. This isn't even "glibertarianism"; it's irrational incoherence.
Re: YES! It happens every single day.
Hmm. Last I checked people are dying every day in the USA too. In your local newspaper there's a section called "Obituaries". Consult this if you doubt me on this. On the larger question, if these foreign healthcare plans are so godawful why do people support them so strongly? Sure, people push for various smallbore reforms; that's true of everything. But support for junking universal coverage approaches zero abroad; even card-carrying rightwingers (e.g., Ms. Thatcher) affirm the general principles of their nations' healthcare plans. It would seem that the Market (in the larger sense of the term) has put its stamp of approval on unviersal healthcare-- and you are the one who is second-guessing it.
By the way on another topic, someone asked why we don't outsource the DMV to private business. That was tried in Colorado, with problematic results. Several years ago you could get your drivers license in CO at Walgreens or CVS, at the photo department. Problem was, a lot of the clerks are young people, and they were handing out licenses with fake birth dates to their underage friends. Of course, CO then went to the opposite extreme and made the ID requirements for getting a drivers license so stringent that for a while they would not even accept US passports (!) as valid ID documents for applicants.
if these foreign healthcare plans are so godawful why do people support them so strongly?
This is such an odd argument. People will almost always support the devil they know; it's why the US doesn't have universal health care yet. Add in the generous helpings of misinformation about the US which are served up worldwide, and it's hardly surprising.
Welcome to the post 9/11 world, and if you don't understand what all of this has to do with the post 9/11 government mentality, well you are in for many more pleasant surprises.
Why don't you people read the post before you comment? The answer to this great question is contained in both the original post
Actually, I did read the original post, and didn't see it. Perhaps I missed it. Care to point out where she explains?
Re: This is such an odd argument.
What is odd in saying that if large numbers of people prefer A to B then there's probably something superior about A? If that argument doesn't hold then market economics (along with just about every social science) collapses into random nonsense. And suggseting that people are being brainwashed smacks of either intellectual dishonest, paranoid desperation or both. If a business argued to itself that its products (the Edsel, New Coke, "Ishtar" etc.) weren't selling because people had been deceieved and brainwashed by their rivals, said business would go the way of the dodo bird soon enough, which may well be why "conservatism" (it doesn't deserve the name, but that's another argument) is doing a Wicked Witch of the West style meltdown-- rather reminiscent of Soviet Communism during the late 80s in fact.
In fact, to tell you the truth, nowhere in the post does she actually write that she finally obtained a DC drivers license. Readers are left to use their imagination.
Al: second item in the OP
2. Megan goes to get temporary plates in order to drive car back from Florida. DC DMV informs her that she cannot get a driver's license (a necessary prelude to temporary plates) because she is a wanted woman in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for a 16-year-old underaged drinking offense that in no way involved a motor vehicle.
Al:
I believe I have belatedly understood your question, which was, why not apply for a new license in January, or whenever she literally moved. As you can probably tell, I'm really on the ball today.
Answer: 1) I don't know, but I'm not sure why it would be mandatory if you're not driving. It's perfectly legal not to have a driver's license, after all. 2) The same fight with PA would have occurred, but without the drama of the temporary tags in the background, so you would have read about it here no matter what.
Next up: These guys get to be your anesthesiologists!
It's all fun and games until someone gets MRSA
Why do businesses offer health benefits to workers to begin with? Not for altruistic reasons. They do so in order to attract workers.
Yes, but workers don't ask for a benefit the gov't will provide anyway (and which, as taxpayers, they are paying for). Why would they? If you're an employee, would you rather have $50,0000 and a benefit you can get from Uncle Sam anyway, or $60,000?
The only way the great mass of people will move into the public plan is if it really does provide superior coverage, in which case what's the problem?
Bzzzzt. Once again, what happens when you subsidize something?
Let's say John can get a nice big beautiful shiny red apple for $10 -- a magnificent specimen, the very epitome of its kind. And let's say John is also told he must pay $1 into the Apple Fund, and if he wants he can take as many free apples (dull, a bit bruised, but edible) from the Fund as he wants -- but he has to pay the same whether he takes any or not, and whether he buys the nice $10 apple or not. Guess what John does?
Last I checked people are dying every day in the USA too.
Generally not because the government won't pay for an MRI, or get them to a surgeon within 6 months. Generally the worst case here is you get medical treatment you can't actually afford, and have a hard time paying it back. It's probably better than dying.
On the larger question, if these foreign healthcare plans are so godawful why do people support them so strongly?
You haven't cited any actual evidence that they do. In fact, in Canada mandatory health care laws have been rolled back recently.
Possibly because the European countries that have more socialist systems have better health outcomes than we do?
Not exactly. They have better outcomes after diagnosis and after treatment. That does you no good if you are never properly diagnosed or don't survive long enough to be treated, which is much less likely to happen here because you are far more likely to get MRIs or other expensive tests here and far more likely to be treated in a timely manner.
And even that better outcomes "benefit" is largely because they have healthier lifestyles than we do, and because they do statistics differently (for instance, they are far more likely to abort unhealthy fetuses, so they have lower infant mortality).
At lest with private insurance, you can tell them to go to hell and switch companies.
Right, but that's exactly what they want you to do. That's exactly what they design their services to make you do - tell them to go to hell and switch companies, after you've paid premiums for 20 years but before you've put in any expensive claims.
That's why the free market can't coherently provide medical insurance; the market incentives are all wrong. The successful HMO business plan is the one where you pay in premiums for 20 years, and then the first time you try to put in a claim, you get the runaround so bad you tell them to fuck themselves and switch companies. You don't take your premiums when you go, after all; that's 100% clear profit for them.
Free market health insurance makes zero sense. All the market incentives are against actually providing any care.
Re: Yes, but workers don't ask for a benefit the gov't will provide anyway
See again: public transportation vs cars. We have a mix of public and private provisions in several areas of the economy. The mix produces different results in different areas, but no where does the public provision drive out the private. For that to happen the public provision would have to be profoundly superior in every respect, not just cost, to the private, and it won't be.
Re: Once again, what happens when you subsidize something?
Public transportation is subsidized. Why aren't we all using it? (Hnt: Cost is not the only factor people consider in making their choices.)
Re: fact, in Canada mandatory health care laws have been rolled back recently.
???
Apparently you are posting from an alternate universe. Here there's been a bit of tampering at the margins, but Canada's healthcare system is intact.
Re: At least with private insurance, you can tell them to go to hell and switch companies.
Under Obama's proposal you would be free to do that as well. Don't like Obamacare? Aetna, Humana, etc will still be in business.
"Join AAA, and go to their offices for any and all DMV paperwork that they're allowed to handle."
And have your dues go to lobby for even more asinine laws.
What is odd in saying that if large numbers of people prefer A to B then there's probably something superior about A?
There are three problems with it: one, people have to be actually familiar with both A and B in order to make a judgment. Most people worldwide are simply not well acquainted with any health care but their own, so their "preference" means nothing. Second, and relatedly, people usually prefer the devil they know to one they don't; a guy named Hamlet put it better than I can (although I'm not as histrionic as he). Third, utility curves differ. What is a great system for you may be repugnant to me; what suits the French mindset may be either inadequate or suffocating for Americans.
If that argument doesn't hold then market economics (along with just about every social science) collapses into random nonsense.
Yes, well, I can live with that. But your premise is false.
And suggseting that people are being brainwashed smacks of either intellectual dishonest, paranoid desperation or both.
I said nothing about brainwashing. The fact is that most people don't know much about life anywhere but where they live, and the lens through which foreigners view the US can be quite hilariously distorted. Hell, the lens through which urban hipsters view rednecks living 100 miles away can be hilariously distorted (and vice versa, of course).
The fact that a German who has never lived in the US prefers the German system to the US means less than our gracious hostess' preference for (and my powerful dislike of) urban living (the two of us at least having some knowledge of the alternative, unlike our hypothetical foreigner).
2) The same fight with PA would have occurred, but without the drama of the temporary tags in the background, so you would have read about it here no matter what.
Right, but the temporary tags were what made the drivers license issue so critical. If the license issue had been solved prior to her obtaining the car, then she could have driven right over to get new tags. Water under the bridge, I suppose...
"Yeah Mike, and how is what you describe any different than what people with private health insurance deal with every day? What you just described is every single HMO in America, but let me guess, you're OK with HMOs fucking people over and being incompetent because they're in the magical private sector."
I was in an HMO a while back that allowed me to make appointments with specialists without first going through the Primary. It was actually a pretty good plan. I got sick once and went to the Emergency Room -- paid $100 ER copay. Done. Broke my arm, got in for X-Rays, and a specialist, paid normal copays, no problem.
Just because your HMOs have been poor doesn't mean they all are. Vive La Competition!
If the gov't takes it all over, there will BE NO COMPETITION. Everyone will have universally poor care.
I was in an HMO a while back that allowed me to make appointments with specialists without first going through the Primary. It was actually a pretty good plan.
If it was so good why aren't you in it anymore?
They go out of business, maybe? Since they couldn't compete in the same market with crap HMO's that take your money but don't provide any services?
Honestly, think it through. HMO's are widely regarded as crappy because there's no possible way that business plan can ever work. Your former HMO paid out thousands on your behalf and recouped none of it, since you switched to another provider. How long do you think they can go on losing money like that?
I am sure these government people will do a much better job handling your health care.