by Editor
The Oregonian reports:
“Sue Sherman of Southwest Portland lived a peaceful, healthy life until she was dealt an ugly card last year: a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
“From the whirl of appointments, tests and drugs arose an enduring irony of any serious illness: too many moments surrendered just to the act of waiting, for doctors, for results, for help.
“Sherman, 57, believed she had bought some time when she qualified for Social Security disability income. But that only brought on the worst wait of all.
“How do people survive this?” she said. “The ripple effect of this is tsunami-huge.”
“She joined nearly 2 million disabled Americans — at least 15,000 in Oregon — who fall into a twilight with the first monthly Social Security disability payment, for they then must wait two years to become eligible for Medicare.”
See story here:
by Editor
Chicago attorney Jeff Rabin has developed an expertise in Fibromyalgia disability cases, and wrote an article detailing the process of winning a case:
…In Fibromyalgia claims the clinical notes and a report of the treating rheumatologist are most important. A 1996 decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals established that a rheumatologist is the primary source for proof of this disease. Office notes from the rheumatologist should consistently document the positive findings for the tender points which are diagnostic for this disease. In addition, the patient should be complaining at each office visit of the fatigue and pain that are consistent with this condition. A report that establishes that all other causes for the symptoms have been ruled out helps establish the existence of the disease.
Since the extent of fatigue and pain can not be measured, consistency of complaints in the various medical records will be important. The use of pain medications, even if just for trial periods is an important consideration in evaluating the severity of pain. Use of mild analgesics indicates less severe symptoms; prescription of stronger narcotics indicates that the treating specialist felt the pain problems more severe. Also, documentation by the physicians of concentration impairments, and the inability to perform routine daily activities such as housework… See Jeff’s full article here:
by Editor
Social Security (SSA) has released statistics which track, by state, the numbers of recipients of Disability payments as well as showing other SSA beneficiaries of our important social insurance program. These federal funds support widows, children whose parents have died, retirees and the disabled. For many, this is the only possible access to health insurance thru Medicare.
by Editor
From Ted Marmor in today’s Huffington Post:
What we have is a case of ideology masked as fiscal prudence. There is every reason to believe that Peter Peterson and the personnel of his foundation believe profoundly in the virtues of a smaller public sector, a robust means-tested conception of social welfare policy, and the importance of not providing most citizens with a collectively financed system of income protection against major losses in family income from recognized and understood risks. So they are advancing their cause as prudent, fiscal watchdogs.
But the distortion of this longstanding approach is evident in the concentration on Social Security rather than the most important threat to America’s fiscal future, the continuing, disproportionate rates of increase in medical care spending, both private and public. The health reform legislation of 2010 was celebrated as insurance expansion for millions of uninsured Americans, but it did not seriously take on medical inflation. There is a big problem in this policy space, but the Fiscal Commission meetings of late June 2010 are not focused there. Instead, they are locked on the one sphere of American domestic policy that has been a substantial success over its history since 1935.
It is ironic — and infuriating — to have a debate in 2010 about Social Security when that program had nothing to do with the transformation of the nation’s fiscal policy from surplus to deficit since 2000. Two wars, Bush tax cuts, and the fiscal consequences of the economic crash of 2008-9 explain the size of the deficit. Why are we even talking about reducing Social Security at this time? It is not because there is a good rationale, but because of the money behind the rationalizers of a smaller government. See full column here:
by Editor
From columnist Michael Hiltzik in the Los Angeles Times today:
“Social Security’s curse is that its amazing simplicity from the standpoint of its beneficiaries — those checks keep coming regardless of the state of the economy or the federal budget — masks the complexity of its inner workings.
“This is what allows the program’s antagonists to disguise their efforts to destroy it as merely minor tweaks — requiring from the rest of us never-ending vigilance. That’s because some seemingly “minor” fixes can have consequences great enough to wreck the entire edifice, the way a tiny water leak can eat away a foundation and bring down a house…” :
See full column here:
by Editor
A new effort to gather stories about the importance of Social Security in our society has been launched. The Social Security Stories Project is seeking story submissions from the public, with a goal of receiving 1,000 stories by the end of July. The stories will then be reviewed for possible inclusion in a new book to be published in honor of the 75th anniversary of Social Security on Aug. 14, 2010. …
“We are hoping the younger generations will interview their parents and grandparents on the subject which is why our website offers interview questions,” says Barbara Burt, executive director for the Frances Perkins Center, a nonprofit organization leading the project as part of its mission to honor and learn from Frances Perkins (the first woman to serve in a presidential cabinet). A pioneering woman in and ahead of her time, Perkins was U.S. secretary of labor for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She was champion of the New Deal, close friend and advisor to FDR. See link here:
by Editor
The Huffington Post ran an article today with Mark Miller’s reality check on the rhetoric about Social Security going broke: “… Social Security also has that big surplus, which has been accumulating since the last “fix” to the program was implemented during the Reagan years. That fix included a gradual boost of the retirement age from 65 to 67, and a substantial boost in payroll taxes that fund Social Security. Those changes were intended to raise a substantial cushion for the future retirement of all those boomers. It worked, and the money sits in something called the Social Security Trust Fund.
“True, as boomers start to retire in greater numbers, there won’t be enough current workers coming along behind them to keep the program solvent on a pay-go basis. That means the surplus funds will be drained — eventually. As in … 2037. But even then, income coming into the fund would cover about 75 percent of benefit payouts.”
See article here:
by Editor
The Arizona Republic reports that an “unprecedented increase in the number of Americans who delay retirement could accelerate over the next two decades, helping to ease the pressures on Social Security and Medicare, according to a RAND Corporation study.
‘The study differs from government projections indicating a leveling off in the number of older Americans who remain employed. Lawmakers should consider dismantling barriers that discourage some older people from staying in the workforce, the study adds.
“Changes in pensions, longer life expectancy, less disability at older ages and more women in the workforce are all trends that are gaining momentum and are likely to cause more Americans to delay retirement,” RAND researchers think the forces causing people to delay retirement or re-enter the workforce are strong enough to keep the current trend going until at least 2030.
‘Among them, a more highly educated workforce has allowed more people to obtain jobs that are more fulfilling, less physically challenging and better paid than in decades past.”
Read more:
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The Social Security system remains backlogged and although there is some improvement at the hearing level, one can question whether this is just because more cases are lagging behind at the initial and reconsideration levels of appeal. THe Associate Press takes on this issue here:
“Nearly 2 million people are waiting to find out if they qualify for Social Security disability benefits. It will be a long wait for most, even if they eventually win their cases.
The Social Security system is so overwhelmed by applications for disability benefits that many people are waiting more than two years for their first payment. In Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and other states, the wait can be even longer.
The Social Security commissioner, Michael J. Astrue, says the delays are unacceptable, particularly for people who have paid payroll taxes for years to support the system and now are unable to work because of debilitating medical problems. Astrue has had some success in reducing a case backlog that has plagued the system for years. But a spike in new applications, linked to the economic recession, threatens to swamp the system again.
Claims typically increase in a bad economy because many people who worked despite their disabilities get laid off and apply for benefits.
About 3.3 million people are expected to apply for benefits this year. That’s 300,000 more than last year and 700,000 more than in 2008.”
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5guw84_hAq02tLZCuigFPyIZg_rKwD9FJDQQG1 See story here:
by Editor
Today’s Washington Post reports that most Social Security and other federal benefits payments will be made by direct deposit by 2013. We applaud this savings in postage and paper, and also the increased security that it represents – thefts from mailboxes will be a thing of the past.
The decision will eliminate about 136 million paper checks sent by the Social Security Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, Railroad Retirement Board and Office of Personnel Management.
The switch is part of a broader plan to shift away from paper-based payments and transactions. The plans should save taxpayers about $400 million in processing
Read more here:
