Defend Yourself!: How to Protect Your Health, Your Money, and Your Rights in 10 Key Areas of Your Life

From the highly praised former New York City Public Advocate and author of The Consumer Bible, a one-stop guide to everyone's rights and options to protect their health, their money and themselves—complete with real-life examples, practical advice and resources.

Patient, client, employee, taxpayer, consumer—it's time to defend yourself! Why should anyone tolerate an HMO not paying for his wife's emergency surgery because he didn't give notice beforehand, or accept a higher insurance rate because she lives in a low-income community, or be charged a "restocking fee" for returning defective merchandise?

A large body of laws and regulations exists to give average workers and consumers the tools to talk back and fight back. Defend Yourself is a detailed guide to help readers navigate:
• Health care (fight big insurers and obtain life-saving prescription drugs)
• Employee rights (fight discrimination at work and protect unemployment benefits)
• Consumer laws (shop safely on the Internet, assert your rights when a product is recalled for safety reasons)
• Financial services (avoid unfair banking fees, prevent identity theft, deal with debt)
• Taxes (filing, dealing with audits and collections)
• Investing (fight broker or corporate fraud)
• Small business, community organizations and much more

In a world of powerful big business and ineffective big government, Defend Yourself is an invaluable guide for everyone.

Mark Green, President of the New Democracy Project, was New York City's Consumer Affairs Commissioner (1990-1993) and elected Public Advocate (1994-2001). He is the author or editor of 19 previous books including The Consumer Bible, Who Runs Congress?, What We Stand For, Changing America and the bestseller The Book on Bush: How George W. (Mis)leads America (with Eric Alterman, 2004).