Posted on 10/13/2012 5:50:55 PM PDT by American Dream 246
You have SSDI confused with SSI. You are not automatically eligible for Medicaid on SSDI. You are eligible for Medicare. You might be eligible for Food Stamps if you are on SSDI but it is not a given.
Based on this woman’s income given in the email she would not make anywhere near $1000.00 in SSDI. If we assume she is 30 years old she would make about $80.00 per month.
SSA has a benefits calculator which can be used to estimate your retirement or disability benefits.
Correction to my previous reply, that should be $800.00 not $80.00
Give me a break!
I am a single working mother, USAF veteran, scraping to get by.
I see people every day in my community gaming the system to get government handout “freebies”.
It took over fifteen years to get any assistance for a military veteran friend of mine, both severely physically and mildly mentally disabled due to service related injuries. He was homeless for many years.
His sister had to pay lawyers to make the feds cough up what he was owed.
OTOH, a former friend of mine scooped up massive amounts of my tax dollars for merely taking care of her own mildly autistic twin sons.
Who also now get “free tuition” at their local university, but their mama is still collecting more money from the government to “care” for them, than I make working 40 hours a week.
But I am labeled a heartless conservative bitch, demanding more attention be paid to those who are truly disabled, and zero funds be spent on the merely corrupt and lazy criminal elements of our society.
There are many people on Medicare who are under the age of 65, and we wonder why it's going broke.
You’re not just paying your own bills, you’re paying all theirs too.
It seems our Government should heed her words.
I liken this whole situation to the Illegal Alien issue. We have Politicians who enable people who committed a crime by entering this Country (The Dream Act, Government Assistance, Medicaid, Section 8), but accuse our own Citizens of being heartless Racists for wanting the Border secured and the Government freebies stopped for Illegals.
I fear, make that I know, that none of this will ever change no matter who is running the show. Take away anything and you are accused of Murder. The die is cast.
No, I am not disabled.
The first person I tried to help claim disability benefits lost one of her legs above the knee through a debilitating disease that also wrecked the rest of her body. It took over three years after her leg was amputated before any government “benefits” were granted.
The next disabled person I knew broke his back on an Army mission in South America. The US Army was happy to patch him up, and give him an honorable discharge.
Who knew spinal fractures might cause permanent physical problems?(HEAVY SARCASM)
The truly disabled people I know had to fight long and hard for any “assistance” we all are told we pay for via onerous taxes.
Do the rest of you think if it ever happens to you, you will be treated any better?
Meanwhile, billions of USA taxpayer dollars are WASTED on foreign aid in nations who proudly proclaim their hatred of the USA.
Your mom and I would probably have been friends, of a sort.
I don’t know her circumstances, not that it would matter much.
What you didn’t seem to learn from her, is that what you personally do, does indeed matter.
I freely admit my absolute willingness to inflict a level of death and destruction on a scale you can’t even imagine exists, against enemies you don’t even know you have.
God will judge me. And I accept that.
Do you?
I doubt she gets 700.00 a month for food stamps, unless she has 12 kids.
I was not criticizing your earlier Post, I was agreeing with your position.
Even as a Conservative, I believe Society as a whole has an obligation to protect the innocent and helpless among us.
The wasted Tax dollars going to the lazy, the entitled who feel they are owed a living and the criminals who abuse the system take away from those who should be helped.
That is the failure of a bloated Government where wasting a Billion Dollars is seen as an accounting oversight.
I apologize if my original Reply led you to believe something that was not my intent.
It's going broke because like SSDI congress would not leave the funding untouched. Believe it or not many disabled do not run up medicare. My medical cost is several trips to my primary care doctor a year and my three meds the most expensive on I pay out of pocket. For the high cost of my disability I go through V.A. hearing aids and corrective insoles I get from V.A. because Medicare nor Medicaid pay for it. I've been hospitalized once as an adult and only overnight for chest pains.
My wife is another matter though. Her medical cost initially bankrupted us. I'm just glad we went bankrupt long before the so called bankruptcy reform took place. We had several hundred thousand in bills for a six month hospital stay. When they transferred her to rehab good old Blue called it a release and canceled her insurance.
If you want to go into cost though let's try this then. A nursing home cost minimal $100 a day and I am using old figures. That's $52K a year that either Medicaid or Medicare both which are federal funds will pay out just on room & board. My wifes been a quad 27 years. That would have been over $1.4 M basic cost plus more for anything more than room and board had she went into a facility which BTW she medically qualified for.
We chose staying at home. Both of us are former nursing home workers although I wasn't involved in the medical care portion of it like she was. I'm the sole caregiver. In 27 years she has had about a dozen home health nurse visits. I learned skilled nursing. This hit her at 35 and it was in now way shape or form anything she did on her part to cause it.
Most workers in the United States are one catastrophic illness away from financial ruin. Your health insurance if you have it through your employer last 30 days after your last sick day is gone and then it is canceled and you can go on COBRA. COBRA cost are outrageous for the coverage given. You can't go back to private insurance because of preexisting conditions. Most persons who become disabled end up on Medicaid at least until their disability is approved.
In the mean time they can draw SSI. Once disability is approved every cent of the SSI you received comes out of the first payment you get on disability. Some persons draw enough Disability so they don't qualify for Medicaid and some don't. I think the cut off is around $1400 a month per person somewhere in there.
Sure there has to be some reform coming. But the reform has to be done in a manner that doesn't cut off vulnerable persons who have through wage conscription paid into the system. One way to cut cost is for Medicare/Medicaid to encourage families to do their own care if possible. But that also requires a family member with the disposition to do it otherwise the person is subject to abuse.
I do my wifes care and I did my dads Hospice care last year so he could stay home. I'm the one in the family who had the mental disposition to handle it except for my wife and her physical disability makes that impossible for her or she would. My mom will not see a nursing home either if I'm physically and mentally able to provide the needed care. My sister for her safety is where she is and it is private paid by her money. Assisted living for a Dementia patient is about $4K a month and up due to the extra measures it takes. The laws have changed you can't restrain a Dementia or Alzhiemers patient in a hospital or any licensed facility. Nor can you restrain any patient who can stand up. Mom can't do the care for her she's 80. I'm taking on more and more of her care.
Got answers? The old well we'll just end it all right now and every person for themself won't work. There has to be some reason and common sense in the reforms. It will take at least a generation to make the change.
There is something else many don't realize. People are surviving ailmants and accidents that a couple of decades ago usually meant death. With that comes a need for medical treatment. Many times it does mean the person survives but may be disabled. My wife's condition was likely caused by Polio Relapse they think hitting her at C-5 C-6 level in her neck. That added to her 4'10" 90 pound body was lifting 6 ft 200-300 pound plus patients at the time. No one knows what awaits them.
My last post wasn’t aimed at you personally. I’m just pointing out the realities some persons are facing who are on disability.
Who is John Gault?
My boss at my 2nd job out of college had one of those. Maybe a couple of model years earlier, that he had gotten off-lease coming from someone who buys a new car every 2-3 years. Change the oil religiously every 3000 miles and keep up the brakes and that’s about it. They’ll go forever.
Based on some stories from my mother, I think you’ve nailed it. A lot of people seem to be getting on SSDI these days. She just can’t understand it.
Those are numbers of SSDI recipients in *1,000s*. So we have today almost 9 million SSDI recipients, as compared to around 3.5 million in 1993, around 20 years ago. Our population certainly isn't up 2.5 times.
Lots of other info at the link as well.
My wife is on SSDI. It took her 4 years and two lawyers to get her benefit. She doesn't get anywhere near $3500 a month and she was making $65K a year before her injury.
I want to call BS on this story. That or this chick in the story needs to be locked up for fraud.
These numbers are bullshit!
“She said the gov’t sends her $1500.00 a month in 1 check; she gets $700.00 a month on an EBTcard (food stamps), and $800.00 a month for rent.”
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