Doesn't surprise me none: http://news.yahoo.com/social-securit...090119318.html
Laid-off workers and aging baby boomers are flooding Social Security's disability program with benefit claims, pushing the financially strapped system toward the brink of insolvency.
Applications are up nearly 50 percent over a decade ago as people with disabilities lose their jobs and can't find new ones in an economy that has shed nearly 7 million jobs.
The stampede for benefits is adding to a growing backlog of applicants — many wait two years or more before their cases are resolved — and worsening the financial problems of a program that's been running in the red for years.
New congressional estimates say the trust fund that supports Social Security disability will run out of money by 2017, leaving the program unable to pay full benefits, unless Congress acts. About two decades later, Social Security's much larger retirement fund is projected to run dry as well
.
Much of the focus in Washington has been on fixing Social Security's retirement system. Proposals range from raising the retirement age to means-testing benefits for wealthy retirees. But the disability system is in much worse shape and its problems defy easy solutions.
The trustees who oversee Social Security are urging Congress to shore up the disability system by reallocating money from the retirement program, just as lawmakers did in 1994. That, however, would provide only short-term relief at the expense of weakening the retirement program.
Claims for disability benefits typically increase in a bad economy because many disabled people get laid off and can't find a new job. This year, about 3.3 million people are expected to apply for federal disability benefits. That's 700,000 more than in 2008 and 1 million more than a decade ago.
"It's primarily economic desperation," Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue said in an interview. "People on the margins who get bad news in terms of a layoff and have no other place to go and they take a shot at disability,"
HOWEVER!!!!!! And mind you this is MY honest opinion: How many kids are on the parents' SS? Those who were born at 5 months gestation, or have other problems? Of course, I also consider those with problems at birth that lawyers LOVE sueing over.....
I say: Reign the stuff in
Also heard on the news last week that they want to look at overhauling the military retirement system. That will do wonders for maintaining accession and retention rates for the nation's military. I suppose everyone is eligible for losing any particular government payout with the exception of those in the government itself. They always look after their own interests.
Any thinking person knows that SSA payments are a pipe dream for ourgeneration and the one that comes behind us. There simply will not be any money left. For the first time in my life keeping my money under the mattress or buried in the backyard seems like a good Idea. That the current administration wants to cut military benefits doesn't surprise me since Obama actually stated he did not believe soldiers wounded in combat should have their care paid for by the government. So much for the "Thanks from a greateful nation". The reasoning was that ours is a volunteer military and people who join know what they are getting into.
As far as children getting benefits on their parents SS coverage;
Most of the consumers I searve are profoundly disabled and cannot work. If they were born in the 50's and 60's they were most likely committed to institutions and the parents simply disappeared. Those folks often have medi-caid coverage - but as anyone who has ever been on medicaid knows the standard of care one recieves is poor at best. Those with involved parents need to wait a full two years after the parent becomes eligible for Social security to apply for benefits and that onlyapplies if the parent is receiving SSA payments not SSI. These folks really do need the help because they have nothing and with health care reform the few doctors who will see them are vanishing fast.
there are no easy answers.....Just lot's of questions
Social Security had a very significant surplus. Until Bushie and Cheney raided the social security funds and left it with IOUs that will never be repaid to fund their war chest.
What would you do with children born at 5 months gestation who survive and have problems and are not capable os being insured under the new laws. I always thought it was the right wing that yelling about denying care to the elderly,and disabled just because they have such a limited future. What would you do with that 5 month gestation baby, would you change it where we only try to save those that are of 6 months gestation. Or would you then change it to 7 months gestation. Are we going to deny that we the greatest country in the world cannot take care of our disabled. So who is going to sit on these panels and say sorry we are not going to be able to take care of you. Will you then fuss when these people start dying on the streets and no one can afford to bury them.
PS you stated that those receiving disability and medicaid are getting inadequate care. Also that Doctors and other services are becoming less available to these people. This is true but this is a problem that has been going on for at least the last 30 years that I know of. It is also becoming more pronounced with time. Can we as a country afford to care for them and the soldiers who are injured in these unjust wars, yes we can. End the wars, stop being the police state of the world.legalize drugs, stop the drug war, stop incarcerating pot smokers for life. And cluttering up the jails. Keep the jails for dangerous criminals.
Anyone who comes into my ER regardless of ability to pay always gets the care that they need.
Tom, as an aside (sort of)---it is pretty sad when when many of the commerials on TV are of lawyers wanting to 'stick it' to HCP's. Not ALL CP cases, etc., are due to negligence; long term problems will still be there, whether great or small. PS....Am working on a CEU about end of life pressure ulcers. Those can't be helped.
As for burying people? If it came down to it, let the convicts do something useful for a change.
Have you ever considered that some birth defects were NOT supposed to make the full 9 month gestation period? Well, some do. Yes, I know I'll hear some bleating from somewhere about that, but.....in some cases, quality of life/lack of it. If you think about it in your terms, no eventually playing golf, smoking pot..... Just a thought.
I need some coffee.
Tom, you miss my point. I agree that disabled children and adults should be cared for and are entitled to good care. I also believe that every effort should be made to save infants born prematurely. Not like Canada where such infants are routinely listed as still born so as to adjust infant mortality rates to reflect favorably on their health care system.
You seem to forget I work with developmentally disabled people. It is very frustrating to me when I can't find a Dr. to see them because reimbursement rates are so low. ER's are a different animal altogether. For the most part they do provide quality care, but these clients’s should not have to go to the ER where they often wait in hallways for 6 to 8 hours, to receive basic medical care. But just last year I had a Down's patient with Alzheimer's who we had to the ER seven times who received no care at all in the ER. He was sent home each time with no recommendations or referrals - they didn't even give him an IV to hydrate though we reported he had not been eating or drinking.
Or a client who suffered an ankle fracture and because he was a Medicaid patient got discharged from the ER without even a splint to stabilize it, and no referral to an ortho. It took me Two days to get seen at the county facility and then they almost turned him away because he is a biter and a spitter. This is a profoundly disabled person who because of abuse in the institution is extremely afraid of all medical settings.
I can name case after case where disabled people receive less than adequate care in most ER's. Last year I hooked up with a teaching hospital about an hour away - which gladly treats our clients in their clinics which has been a blessing.
Bush and Cheney were no saints and I have never said they were - the fact is that even the Clinton administration "borrowed" form the Social Security trust. We should not be fighting over oil in the Middle East when we have more than enough domestic oil to take care of our needs, plus the technology to produce clean burning natural gas at less than half the cost of making gasoline. There would be plenty of money if we deported the criminal immigrants back to Mexico where by the way health care is free. I lived in Mexico for two years and can tell you that American's in Mexico do not get free health care.
Also lest you think I just some spoiled affluent person I would like to tell you a bit about myself. I was raised in a family with six children by a mom and dad who had no education beyond high school. We worked a family farm and my dad taught us that we live in an eat what you kill world. He said no honest work was beneath you and that there was nothing wrong with getting your hands dirty to make a living. He scraped and struggled so that his children could have an education. Never asked for help from any one and took it as a point of pride that he never had to go on the "dole" as he called it. Sadly that way of life (the family farm) is fast becoming a thing of the past.
In my adult life I have been poor homeless and hungry. My husband and I are fiscally frugal - we eat very little fast food, I grow a garden and cook healthy meals every day. I learned the hard way that people who expect the government to care for them never get beyond that point. Only when you decide to strive and work for what you want do you begin to succeed. I have had many employees where I work who are in their 20's and have no idea how to work and even less desire to do so.
You and I are not so different from each other but while I have never accused you of being a slave to the liberal media - you have intimated that I am misinformed by conservative news sources. When I hear or read something I start researching to find out what the truth actually is.
I can hear in your writing that you are passionate about your beliefs and willing to fight for what you believe in. I respect that .
Peace and Namaste
Hppy
Just stepping back to see how this goes.......
Alert me when the air raid is over.
No air raid just a clearing of the airOriginally Posted by cougarnurse
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