Misconceptions About Disability

I can't tell you how many times I've heard stories like this:

"My neighbors pretend to be disabled but they really aren't.  They can mow their lawn and climb up on their roof to do repairs, so obviously they aren't disabled.  They are just scamming the Medicare system to get money to buy drugs.  They told me they've never worked a day in their lives.  I think that's so wrong."

Well, I think it's wrong, too, if it's true.

But it's not true.  Oh, the neighbors might be faking disability, I don't know if they are or not.  Neither does the person telling the story, though.  When determining if someone is disabled or not, governmental agencies like Social Security don't really take into consideration whether or not a person can mow their lawn or climb up on a roof, unless the person used to work as a professional lawn care person or has been trained as a roofer.

But it's not true that the neighbors are scamming Medicare, because in order to qualify for Medicare, you must be at least 65 years of age, or you must have been receiving Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) for two years.  If you are 65 years old, it doesn't matter if you are disabled or not, you are entitled to Medicare.  To qualify for SSDI, you must have worked in the past and paid into Social Security, so if the neighbors have never had a job in their lives, they don't qualify for SSDI, so therefore they aren't getting Medicare based on disability.  They aren't scamming Medicare, unless they are pretending to be 65 when they are really younger, which is not what they have been accused of doing.

And even if they were somehow scamming Medicare?  Medicare doesn't give people money that they can then use to buy drugs.  Medicare doesn't give people money at all.  Medicare is basically a form of health insurance.  People pay monthly premiums and then Medicare pays some of their medical bills.  The money for the medical bills goes directly to the health care provider, not to the Medicare recipients.  So the neighbors are not scamming Medicare for drug money.

Oh, I'm not saying that no one ever applies for and gets benefits they aren't really entitled to.  I'm sure it happens sometimes.  But it's not that easy to do.  I think it's much more common for people to need help and be denied benefits.  Only about 35% of people that apply for SSDI get approved the first time they apply.  The other 65% must appeal, a very lengthy process.

And you have to provide all kinds of proof that you are disabled.  For instance, I had to provide letters from both my psychiatrist and my psychologist, records from nearly a dozen hospital stays (do you have any idea how much work it was to track those down?), a letter from my last employer explaining some of the problems I had at work due to my disability, and more.  Could I have faked all that?  Faked being sick enough to require inpatient hospitalization nearly a dozen times?  Have you gone to the emergency room lately?  Do you know how seldom they want to admit patients these days?  If someone can successfully fake all that, they probably deserve an Academy Award or something.