Sue Sherman, the subject of a June 2010 story in The Oregonian about her quiet effort to raise awareness about the Medicare waiting period for Social Security disability recipients, died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer. She qualified quickly under compassionate allowances for Social Security Disability Income in 2009, then learned of the two-year wait to enroll in Medicare — a gap instituted in 1972 to keep costs down, avoid overlaps with private insurance and to preserve Medicare for those with severe, long-lasting disabilities.

At least 15,000 Oregonians are among the 1.8 million Americans who must wait two years after obtaining Social Security disability to become eligible for Medicare. The only exceptions to the Medicare wait are for people in end-state renal failure or with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. SHe became eligible for Medicare in October 2012.

Through 2009 and 2010, Sherman contacted politicians and policymakers to point out that many disabled people spend their savings on the medical care necessary just to reach a diagnosis and can no longer get private health insurance.

For at least the past two sessions of Congress, a proposal has come forward to phase out the waiting period over 10 years. But the Congressional Budget Office calculated the measure would cost an average of $10 billion a year, and the proposal went nowhere. See article here:

Share this article with

Diane Braunstein’s large smile and warm laugh can be infectious. She speaks calmly as she sits in a high-backed, dark wooden chair in her spacious Baltimore office, a master bureaucrat.

If that seems a cold or callous characterization, her actions have been anything but. One look at her résumé shows she’s spent a lifetime mastering the minutia of process and regulation on behalf of the elderly, the ill and the disabled at the Social Security Administration and other organizations. Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue appointed Braunstein director of a program called Compassionate Allow­ances in 2007 after she helped him about 20 years earlier when his terminally ill father could not quickly obtain benefits.

The two were working together at the Department of Health and Human Services. Astrue’s father developed glioblastoma, an often-fatal brain cancer that resulted in a coma. Astrue found himself trying to file for benefits on behalf of someone who wasn’t able to speak.

“It was a huge surprise and a time of high anxiety,” he said. “Having someone as competent as Diane was a great blessing.” See story here:

Share this article with

“The devil’s in the details of the debt deal. Say that three times fast and your tongue will get just as twisted as our politicians’ did in recent weeks.

“The recent debt compromise calls for a bi-partisan committee to make recommendations to Congress by Thanksgiving for reducing entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare. These programs are protected, however, from the automatic reductions in entitlements that will go into effect if the bi-partisan committee doesn’t come to any agreement, or if Congress doesn’t adopt their recommendations.
See full story here:

Share this article with

In the administration’s performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2010, Astrue said he had “made elimination of our hearings backlog our number one priority” and had “steadily reduced the hearings backlog despite receiving nearly 100,000 more hearing requests than we did in [fiscal year] 2009.” He said the Social Security Administration had by September 2010 reduced average hearing processing time to “below 400 days for the first time in six years.”

But Astrue also moved the goalposts, according to TRAC, which is headquartered at Syracuse University and, since 1989, has used private grants to pursue Freedom of Information Act requests of federal agencies. “In 2007 [SSA] set a goal of permanent elimination of the ‘backlog’ by 2012, modified during 2008 to eliminating it by 2013,” TRAC’s report, which is available online at tinyurl.com/ See article here:

Share this article with

“Eric Kingson of the Strengthen Social Security Campaign, has called the draft report “an equal opportunity disaster,” which — beyond cutting benefits for today’s seniors and persons with disabilities — “cuts Social Security benefits for virtually every American alive today and yet to be born.” See full report here:

Share this article with

“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:

Share this article with

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:

Share this article with

There is a comment period on the proposed rules that is open until February 12. The changes are based on the presumption that advances in medical care have made diabetes a manageable condition, not one that is disabling. The current regulations allow a finding of disability in advanced cases of diabetes, where conditions such as peripheral neuropathy or loss of a limb can be attributed to the unconrtolled disease, and prevent work.

The Listings were last revised in 1985 and also cover other endocrine disorders such as pituatary disorders and disorders of the adrenal cortex. The link to the proposed regulatory changes and comment section can be found here:

Share this article with