I need to rant a bit

I made a post here about 1 1/2 years ago about a friend whose wife was hit by a car and was in a coma. She is now home (Thank God for that) but is in a wheel chair with the mind of a 7 year old. My friend just informed me that she was denied for SS disability. Our system really makes you wonder sometimes. I know of another case where the lady was denied because the judge "felt she looked okay." She had a massive brain tumor and was dying. But the judge felt she looked okay. Like I said... and the rich get richer.


Mike

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There is no greater fan of flyfishing than the worm.


Patrick McManus

[Lew]

It took 8 years and three hearings for my wife to win her case. She was a nurse, and I've since thought that it would sure be poetic justice if the judge were hospitalized and my "undisabled" wife were assigned to nurse him back to health, in the condition she's in. I think he'd get his eyes opened in a hurry. When I retired early this year, my company promptly dropped her from my insurance, because they don't cover "medicare eligible" people. You can't win.
Be persistent, and you'll eventually enrich your attorney. Better than not getting what's coming to you though. Hang in. Lew

[Arkriver]

if you haven't done it, write your congressman and senators. Explain your case fully so they know what the problem is. You should atleast get a decent answer from them and if not, well vote for someone else. I have seen the congressional approach work with other matters.

Good luck Allyn

[nighthawk]

Patrick,
It's like a 3 foot flame, really burns my a$$ too! Really ticks me off when I think about the fact that you were disabled while protecting that jack-in-the box judge's hide! Mike hit it on the head. Don't give up. It took a lot of hard fighting for us to get Amy her disability after she was hurt at work. By all means hound the daylights out of your congressman and the veterans administration. As a service related disabled vet I'm betting you are entitled to a lot more than what you are getting now.

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Eric "nighthawk"

American veteran and proud of it!

[SilverMallard]

Mike,

Sorry to hear you got turned down, but it is normal. Over 75% of original applications for SSDI/SSI are turned down. But it is true that about 80% of those rejections are overturned by ALJs on appeal. The system is set up to prevent the disabled from getting their benefits without the help of an attorney, who then collects 25% of all the back pay. Most disability attorneys used to work for SSA in the disability system...often as ALJs. Get the picture? They're lining their own pockets on the backs of the sick and needy with full gov't complicity. That's the system we have. There's no way around it. The average case takes 3 years. So, if you get backpay at $1000/mo for 3 years, that's $36k. So the average contingency fee collected by a disability attorney is about $9000. A decent firm is handling hundreds of these cases a month with about 3 lawyers and 6 paralegals. So, if they have about a 60% success rate, at 100 cases/month, that's $900,000/mo to the firm...or about $10 million/year. If they pay each paralegal $50k/year, that's $300k/year plus payroll obligations that bring it up to about $500k. Knock off the overhead for the firm at about another $500k/year, and the 3 attorneys split $9 million/year...or make about $3 million/year each. And 2 years after I filed for mine, I got $1200/mo...$14,400/year. It's a great country, huh? Of course, after 2 years with no job, we were also about an extra $20k in debt and almost lost our house and cars...which would have meant my wife couldn't work either. My case was expedited because of the financial damage we were able to document and the fact that our lawyers are all retired ALJs from SSA and own the building that the SSA court leases its space from.

The moral of the story? Yes, the system sucks in a major way. It's repulsive. It's run by lawyers and set up by Congress. What do we expect? But keep pushing. Push your lawyer too. Make him earn his keep (as much as that is possible for a lawyer). Get every penny you are entitled to. Don't take no for an answer. And don't feel guilty about "whining" and "pestering" everyone. They're making a freaking killing. And be very thankful that you have your military disability. I didn't have that. And we had to survive on credit cards while we fought for the benefits I had paid for for over 23 years. Also, be very glad you can avoid the insurance/medicare issue due to your military disability. I can't get insurance. I'm still a year away from medicare eligibility because you have to be on SSDI for 2 years before you qualify. Then, once you do, they deduct several hundred dollars/mo to cover your medicare premiums (that I've also prepaid for the past 23 years). And my meds alone...keeping them to the minimum of what my docs want me on...run $1300/mo. Remember...my check is only $1200 without any deduction of premiums for Medicare and I can't get private insurance. So, my docs have cut my meds back to what they can scrounge in samples from the pharm reps.

FYI, you'll also have to learn to let it roll off your back when you hear the self-righteous pontificate about how the gov't needs to cut these "welfare" programs and make folks fend for themselves and "get off their lazy butts and get to work."

Have a Merry Christmas everyone. And the next time you hear someone talk about the merits of universal healthcare systems, remember this thread. I have a disabled friend who moved to Argentina 18 months ago. He has already collected more in gov't benefits from the Argentine gov't than he did in his entire 47 years in America. My wife is German. They don't have this kind of mercenary brutality in their system either.

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MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[slenon]

Silver Mallard, you've pretty much got the inter-relationship recorded and displayed.

Sad to think that those of us who worked and paid to be covered in the event of medical disability are treated as if we are dirt.

After I had undergone my first two spinal surgeries I had to watch for the workers' comp carrier's PI's trying to photograph me in some activity that they could call fraud. The fact that their contracted physician felt two initial surgeris ( and a third followup) necessary did not matter. If I were foolish enough to carry in a bag of groceries or drag a trash can to the curb despite the pain it would cause, they might classify it as fraud and try to recover benefit monies paid to me.

I'm aware that many people try to scam the system who are not really disabled. But a thorough reading of case files should rapidly indicate which of us are genuinely injured.

Between Gloria and me, our meds were running over $2000/month. Now I get mine from VA and she has just signed up for the AARP medicare drug plan that we hope will reduce our medication expenses.

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aka Cap'n Yid.
Stev Lenon Trout Ski, 91B20 '68-'69
When the dawn came up like thunder

[l1ranger]

Sounds a lot like my father's situation
It took him over 4 years to get his SS, but when he did, he got the back money, as well as my younger brothers (under 1. His lawyer didnt get paid unless he got the money, so he kept working on it until it came through, he also took care of everything for my father, who only on occassion had to show up in person for anything.