Disabled seems to have some new meaning!

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I am amazed at how many young, seemingly healthy 20somethings come in with medicare for insurance, since they have SSDI-completely disabled. From what I've seen with my friends and family, getting approved for disability is about as likely as winning the lottery on the way to pick up your Nobel Prize. Any tips? My bones are killing me. I can barely walk to my car after a 12hr shift. My personal med list is longer than any patient I've taken care of in the last year. What is the magic that gets these people approved? I'm not criticizing them, I'm envious. At the rate I'm going, my only hope it to end up in a permanently vegetative state long enough to draw my pension. Even then, I bet the government will declare my decomposing as proof that I am capability of gainful employment-as a flower pot.

Specializes in hospice.

Until the taxpayers in your state demand reform, it won't change. And when they do demand reform, they'll be chastised for hating the disabled. Blech.

I feel ya on being envious. I fully enjoy having a sound mind and the full activity of my limbs but I want a handicapped placard so I can get the good parking spots. :cheeky:

Trying to wrap my brain around ADD being a dx. With medication it is controlled to the point that you can't tell; they are NOT dysfunctional and are COMPLETELY capable of holding down some type of gainful employment. Frankly, even lacking ANY medication they aren't eliminated from the working world! But with even simple treatment (a daily pill, anyone?) it's not a condition that excludes someone from work. In fact, can think of a number of people with that and similar (mild) dx's (such as anxiety disorder) who are completey capable of taking a pill and getting to their JOBS.

SO glad to see my taxpayer dollars are funding the cost of living for those who refuse to seek employment....and have obviously gone to some trouble to make certain it's never required of them.

Yeesh.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
In the example I gave earlier, I am talking about SSI (state). My state is very generous when it comes to giving out benefits. So much so that people from surrounding states come here for that very reason.

So even if SSI is only a grand a month, that person in this state could also walk out the door with food stamps, a housing subsidy, an other types of "welfare", in addition to the SSI. It seems to be enough income that literally thousands of people are are able to live, eat, drink, smoke cigs, smoke pot, do meth, and play XBOX on it. They don't look like they are starving on it unless it is their own choice not to eat.

HA...my state-not so much :no:

There are states out there that practically want you to have virtually nothing and the only way to get a home is to commit a crime; they have cut off general welfare benefits for people who have SSI; some of these people have opted for SSI to prevent a the gap in access to healthcare that Medicare has; that won't be so good for the person who has cancer :no: so they are on SSI.

Like I said before; MOST people on benefits actually need it, even to the trained eye, to basically have people fight over having disability, even those with intellectual disabilities and their way of coping aside, there are far more that need it, and even what one gets, typically is still it enough to pull out of it for some; not the way the system is set up, at least in my state; you have to sometimes give up ALL to have nothing; and go through HELL to get it back.

I find the "loafers" are less than 10

Percent, yet people are so quick to think about them, even when they see one of us "walking around", despite many who have a multitude of disorders and conditions that DO make it stressful to work; or have occupations that basically hit beyond the amount allowed (like nursing, accounting,teaching, etc) and to take a minimum wage job (and the condition of long hours of standing, dealing with crowds or the public for example) would affect ones health; again, it's a not win situation to those who have documented disabilities, and some cope and find a way, others, not so much.

In the example I gave earlier, I am talking about SSI (state). My state is very generous when it comes to giving out benefits. So much so that people from surrounding states come here for that very reason.

So even if SSI is only a grand a month, that person in this state could also walk out the door with food stamps, a housing subsidy, an other types of "welfare", in addition to the SSI. It seems to be enough income that literally thousands of people are are able to live, eat, drink, smoke cigs, smoke pot, do meth, and play XBOX on it. They don't look like they are starving on it unless it is their own choice not to eat.

SSI in my state, for a child, is based on the income of the parent. For example, a severely disabled child by every letter of the law who will qualify at 18, may not qualify prior to 18 because his parents do not fall below or close to the poverty line. In other words, they have jobs.

Another child who has a diagnosis that may not be permanent (such as seizures), may get SSI because of parental income or lack thereof.

Those I know receiving SSDI have worked and paid into the system. Most have had to fight to prove they are disabled and would much rather be back working. Looks can be deceiving when it comes to disabilities.

Specializes in Pediatrics, Emergency, Trauma.
SSI in my state, for a child, is based on the income of the parent. For example, a severely disabled child by every letter of the law who will qualify at 18, may not qualify prior to 18 because his parents do not fall below or close to the poverty line. In other words, they have jobs.

Another child who has a diagnosis that may not be permanent (such as seizures), may get SSI because of parental income or lack thereof.

Those I know receiving SSDI have worked and paid into the system. Most have had to fight to prove they are disabled and would much rather be back working. Looks can be deceiving when it comes to disabilities.

:yes:

I paid into the system, and was given HELL for having a job and a home when I applied for welfare. :wacky:

I applied right after I left the hospital and had my appointment with a wound vac on, I fought and successfully go on welfare because there was NO way I could afford the our of pocket bills for my physician visits, medication, home care visits, and subsequent symptoms that continued; all the experience that I had as a Rehab nurse wasn't going to will away my symptoms; I applied for disability within the month I had the symptoms; I got my first check on Christmas of of that same year-it was a Christmas miracle indeed.

I took advantage of EVERY social program, because I tried to get aid from private sources that helped nurses, unfortunately I was turned away because they were limiting funds as the economy was slowly tanking, and it didn't hit Wall Street yet, so I had to take what I could get, and what I was qualified for.

Being on disability for six years was not a walk in the park; I did what I needed to do to maintain what I have and to pay my bills, because they don't go away when life happens. I'm hoping to get off disability successful soon; but if I don't I would hope the person who is taking care of me will not make the ASSumption that I'm abusing the system, when in fact, I'm not.

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I have 2 neighbors that are on SSDI or trying to get it. One has mental illness, Fibro and asthma. She is the one receiving it. She also is on a CPAP machine. With all her breathing problems she's still able to smoke those cigarettes.

My other neighbor was a trucker and has neck problems(bone spurs which she claims makes her pass out). She's in the process of trying to receive benefits. She was going to the same Community Health Center I go to but found another provider who was more than happy to sign the papers after the ones at the CHC refused to. She too has breathing problems but loves to smoke. She says that after she receives her benefits she's going to buy a small pickup and take a trip to Texas by herself to visit her family and friends. Remember, she has bone spurs in her neck that make her pass out if she turns it a certain way.

Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

I suspect that there's a "disability" mentality.

I have a friend who has been disabled since his late 20s with amkylosing spondilitis (Oh, I KNOW I've butchered the spelling!) exacerbated by having some drunk driver he was attempting to arrest throw him over an embankment. There's no question that he's disabled NOW after thirty years, but at the time he could easily have been a dispatcher or done some other desk job. At least, he says he could have, but chose not to. He also took out credit cards, bought disability insurance for the credit cards and then ran them up to the limit buying stuff just before he filed for disability.

When I had my knees replaced, Dick was urging me to file for disability so I'd never have to work again. I hadn't even considered such a thing . . . I was just bummed because my "thirteen weeks of recovery" turned into 26 weeks! I think it takes a certain kind of person to live off the system when they're able to work, and I'm not that kind of person.

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

This conversation is discouraging to me as someone who just very reluctantly began the process of applying for SSDI.

I probably should've done it two years ago. I have been struggling so hard with trying to stay employed, and I'm a train wreck both mentally and physically.....so much so that one of my doctors, who is ex-military and once said he would 'never' sign off on disability papers for me, has brought it up as a viable option.

Mine are "invisible" illnesses, the kind that no one would know I had just by looking at me. I know I'm going to be judged the same way that others with invisible illnesses are; that's one of the reasons I've delayed filing. I don't want to be a burden on society. But as some have pointed out to me, I will NOT be living off the taxpayers should I win benefits, but money I've earned and paid into the system for over 35 years.

I don't know anything about the 20-somethings on SSDI or SSI with their fancy cell phones and cigarettes. The system is there to help people of any age who can't work for whatever reason, and yes, someone with ADD who can't concentrate on anything longer than a bird can stay on one telephone pole IS disabled. Pills don't solve everything.....if they did, I wouldn't even think about going on SSDI because I'm taking a fistful of them.

Just a point of view from the other side of the issue.

There will always be examples of people who abuse the system with regard to any government benefit program. That doesn't mean the program caters mostly to these abusers or that it doesn't meet the needs of people who are truly disabled. Mental illness & intellectual disabilities are equally justifiable reasons for needing assistance as physical conditions. We should look down on the docs who know better in situations where the system is abused.

I think that the disability program was started for a good reason. But over the years, the system has been abused. I think that there needs to be a stronger clarification of what justifies as a true disability. I know someone who claims that he can't work due to the fact that he is an alcoholic. That doesn't constitute as a disability, in my opinion. That's just one example, but there are many others. I do think that there needs to be stronger guidelines, and more supervision of these folks. I resent when someone claims that they can't work due to a bad back, but yet they are out water skiing or dirt biking every weekend.

I don't have a problem with someone who is legitimately hurt and can't work. I just wish that folks who are "playing the system" would be watched more closely. I do think that there needs to be more therapeutic programs to help folks get back into the workforce, if and when they are able to do so.

The SSDI trust fund is set to go broke in 2016.

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