"Steve B" wrote in message
...

Anyone who thinks selecting a Medicare provider is easy hasn't
waded through the miasma that they send my neighbor. This year we're
weighing it because I'm going to write an article on how virtually
impossible it is for anyone but a subject matter expert to wade through
it.

I was "awarded" Social Security full permanent disability at age 57. I
got
no check, but a 1099 at the end of year for monies I was deemed deserving.
It took three years to get it straight, and at times, I would receive
pages
of absolute gobbledigook of acronyms explaining this and explaining that.

My neighbor gets SSDI, was denied the first time and when she asked for a
copy of her file, at least 40 pages belonged to another applicant. An
admin. law judge took one look at her and the file and granted her
disability right on the spot although it has to be approved by someone else
to actually be awarded - the name of the unit escapes me at the moment -
they check to see the applicant meets all the requirements like citizenship,
quarters worked, etc. .

A blind friend of mine called a lady she knew who worked in SS. We went
to
her. It took eight months, and at the end, I got a check for $44,000.
Now
I get a check every month.

The amount of the backpay indicates how long it took to get your award.
Sounds like at least three or four years from the "date of onset." That's
typical now. Got a fast-moving cancer? Fugghedaboutit!

How many people give up, or die, or blow their brains out before they get
their case solved?

Plenty. It's the same process that private insurers use. Baffle them with
BS paperwork and hope they go away. A awful lot of people do. Disability
awards vary tremendous by state, too, because the determination of
disability is usually done by the state governments. When I asked my doctor
about my neighbor's first denial, he told me of a patient who had lupus who
sent him a letter when she got her first denial. It read "by the time you
read this I will be dead." And she was, from a self-inflicted gunshot
wound. He now guides disabled patients through the process and explains
that more than half of those who apply are turned down during the first
"round."

Which is what I think they want. And then what happens to the money?

It's definitely what they want. Lawyers calling it "taking them over the
hurdles." The money stays with the Feds, I believe. There's plenty of
fraud in SSDI awards, I'm afraid. You can't watch ten minutes of daytime TV
without some law firm offering to help file your claim. It used to be
lawyer would only take people on as clients who had been rejected. Now they
offer help with the application, which is where so many people get bounced
for not having the right medical proof. Poor people who rarely see doctors
have a hell of a time filing a claim because they often have not established
a clear medical history of disability. If their claim involves having MRI's
or other lab tests done, they are consigned to a special sort of hell.

It's not good enough to prove you're disabled, you have to prove that your
disability prevents you from working at a normal job and that accommodations
are not available or practical. I also believe in the Federal system
there's no such thing as partial disability although the Armed Services have
long recognized that you can be partially disabled as does common freaking
sense.

The biggest insult is that most people can't live on SSDI alone. IIRC, it
maxes out at slightly over $1100 a month - $500 more if you're blind. But
it does offer Medicare before retirement, and that helps folks like my next
door neighbor (bad hip replacement and numerous "revision" surgeries, severe
osteoarthritis, congestive heart failure and diabetes).

--
Bobby G.