MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
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The Disabled Leisure Class
By Michael Maiello on Tue, 07/31/2012 - 11:39am |Aren't you tired of all those disabled people living like royalty on $1,100 a month? I passed one on the street today, spending money like Paris Hilton, complaining about the steak at Cipriani's and, of course, the Fibromyalgia.
I'd dissect this nonsense, but Dean Baker beat me too it.
URL:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-lane-social-security-disability-insurances-incentive-not-to-work/2012/07/30/gJQA8UvHLX_story.html?hpid=z2
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Lane says What’s going on? There’s no evidence that workers in general are substantially less healthy than they used to be.
I'm willing to bet most, not "some" of the answer is right here in his own text some of the recent increase in enrollment would have occurred anyway due to the aging of the population.
I know about the developmentally disabled dependent adult situation when they have been ruled unable to support themselves since childhood. While their parents are still of working age, they receive SSI, and, if not covered by their parents' health insurance, Medicaid coverage. Once their parents themselves go on Social Security and Medicare, they are automatically switched to SSDI, getting the same kind of benefits paid to a dependent minor by SS if parents die. They also get Medicare, (while still on Medicaid with Medicaid picking up things Medicare doesn't cover.)
It's part of the principal of everyone's Social Security Insurance, that your dependents get covered too when you pay that lifetime of premiums.
Do I have to explain that a percentage of the boomer generation are dependent developmentally disabled who have never worked, and that the parents of these folks have all been retiring? And since they are part of the biggest generation, just because of that, their numbers are surely bigger than ever before?
<snark> If we wanted to solve this problem before it came upon us, we shouldn't have been allowed the permanently disabled children of the greatest generation to access general health care, we should have been doing the death panels thing, in state institutions and similar, like in the good old days, so they ended up dying before their parents did. </snark>
by artappraiser on Tue, 07/31/2012 - 2:10pm
It's mind boggling to me that a guy who has held some of the choicest jobs in journalism (Lane edited The new Republic and now is a Washington Post columnist) can write, in the space of 800 words:
1) The population isn't getting less healthy!
2) The population is aging!
And nobody even called him out on it before it ran? I've certainly embarrassed myself on this blog before but I'd be really ashamed to make a mistake of reasoning that bad in front of a live audience. Peracles Please would have a field day with an error like that!
by Michael Maiello on Tue, 07/31/2012 - 2:22pm
Yeah, the whole article is kind of dopey, but you know what, I appreciated you posting it because--he has some good links in it! It's just what he does with them.
Here's a dirty little secret, with which some Limbaugh type could make hay of Lane's meme if they found an unusual example, ala Reagan welfare queen: SSI is means tested, SSDI is not! SSDI is very much like regular Social Security, you are owed it, rich or poor; SSI is for the poor. Neither allows earned income above a certain level. But theoretically, you could own a multi-million dollar home and a Ferrari and still receive SSDI. Hence parents of dependent disabled are hassled until retirement about SSI recipients' property and must do thing like hide generous birthday checks and such in their own checking accounts, can be hassled incredibly about in-kind gifts or how much of the grocery bill son Johnny's check is paying. But when they retire and the SSDI kicks in, that all stops, they no longer have to worry about what Johnny owns or will own when they themselves die.
by artappraiser on Tue, 07/31/2012 - 3:09pm
And, of course, this makes a certain amount of sense. If somebody really can't work, I'd rather have them inherit the family house and use SSDI to feed themselves while they live in it then have them lose the family house in a firesale because the issue with somebody not working is that they have finite assets. In that case, you'd want them to be able to hang onto any break they catch.
by Michael Maiello on Tue, 07/31/2012 - 3:13pm
And on working....
I know from personal experience and years of reading newsletters about the developmentally disabled on SSI or SSDI, that a lot of their parents and their siblings would love to see them doing some kind of work, less "leisure," something that they are able to do, for the self-respect, for the learning and socializing effects, etc.
But the parents or guardians went through such a wrenching horrible lengthy process getting them declared disabled (and may have also had such experiences as arguing with SSI folks about whether Aunt Millie's birthday gift sweater should have been claimed as income,) that they fear showing anyone evidence that their child can do some kind of work. Especially since "welfare," isn't what it used to be, and changes with the whims of polticians.
The SSI & SSDI people have from time to time offered trial-transition-to-work programs. A glance at them usually scares the bejesus out of caretakers. As in: oh no, if we let Johnnie try this, they would rule him able-bodied and fit to provide 100% for himself.
Not unless the employer would be someone like Goodwill Industries, who really knows what what they are doing on this front, to make sure their part-time employed disabled don't get that extra dollar that would shut down benefits that keeps them off the streets.
And yes, it's mainly about the health insurance, stoopids, it ain't about that $700 per month Fed check, it's about how a health insurance premium would eat most if not all of that check. But it's also about them not being able to do simple things like pay bills, make dentist or allergy shot appointments, or find an apartment on their own, while able to follow a instructions on how to insert a nozzle on a dispenser on an assembly line, or use a washing machine. Ain't many social workers left out there....and them that are left can't handle all the regs, which sometimes change weekly, a constant flood of updates in their inboxes....often only a specialist attorney can figure them all out....
by artappraiser on Tue, 07/31/2012 - 2:39pm