Re: Re:Question for all

[Guest guest]

I forgot about that. Thanks Sue. Yes, when I went on disability, I did have to wait 2 years for medicare to kick in. During that wait, I was on Medicaid due to getting SSI while my dh was laid off.

God bless you!

To: asthma Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 7:51:23 AMSubject: Re: Re:Question for all

>So you can be on medicare at 50 if you have disabilities?Yep, but you have to wait 2 years, according to this article thatappeared on my Excite homepage today:http://apnews. excite.com/ article/20081223 /D958I1GO1. htmlToo sick to work? Need health care? Take a numberDec 23, 12:28 PM (ET)By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVARWASHINGTON (AP) - Master toolmaker McClain built machine parts withdetails so small they couldn't be seen with the naked eye. Then a lumpon his neck turned out to be cancer.Shalonda Frederick managed a bakery, and decorated cakes for specialoccasions. One day her face and hands, and her arms and legs, startedclenching up. Then she fell off a ladder at work. It turned out to bemultiple sclerosis.McClain, 56, and Frederick, 33, are unlucky enough to have

gottenseriously ill in their most productive years. Theirs is a daily struggleagainst life-changing circumstances.As if that weren't enough, after years of counting on employer medicalbenefits, they are uninsured - and trapped in one of the most troublinggaps in the nation's health care system.After reviewing their cases, the government declared McClain andFrederick too sick to work and started issuing them monthly SocialSecurity disability checks. Then they found out they'd have to wait twoyears to get health care through Medicare. Even though workers and theiremployers pay the payroll taxes that fund Medicare, federal law requiresdisabled workers to wait 24-months before they can begin receivingbenefits.McClain and Frederick are far from alone. An estimated 1.8 milliondisabled workers are languishing in Medicare limbo at any given time.And about one out of eight dies

waiting.As many as one-third of those waiting are uninsured.Frederick needs an expensive injection to control her symptoms; McClain,a scan of a new, and potentially problematic, spot. Neither can affordit. Instead, they fend off creditors, sink deeper into debt and fumethat a system they paid into all those years isn't available when theyneed it."The government is the screwiest insurance company I ever saw," saidMcClain, of , Texas. "What is it that I was paying for out of mycheck every pay period? They have taken the charge for Medicare out ofmy paycheck, and now that I need it, I can't have it."With President-elect Barack Obama promising to guarantee health carecoverage for all, advocates for the disabled are hoping that repeal ofthe Medicare waiting period is finally at hand."The current law is really indefensible, " said Sen. Jeff Bingaman,D-N.M. "There is no logic

behind requiring people who are determined tobe disabled to wait two years before they become eligible for Medicare."Bingaman introduced a bill to phase out the waiting period, and as asenator Obama co-sponsored it.It turns out there is a simple explanation for the waiting period: cost.In 1972, Congress and President Nixon agreed to expand Medicareto cover not only seniors but the disabled. They created a waitingperiod to minimize costs and discourage people from gaming the system.Over time, the consequences of the waiting period - and the costs ofrepeal - have only grown.In the 1970s, there wasn't a whole lot medical science could do for manycancer patients. Now cancer is thought of less as a death sentence, andmore as a manageable disease.But as drugs and treatments for serious illnesses have improved, thecost of closing the Medicare gap has ballooned. Estimates range

up to$12 billion a year. And that gives lawmakers pause."When it comes to people dying of cancer, you can't help but besympathetic, " said Sen. Grassley, R-Iowa. "But at a time when wehave a big downturn in the economy, it may be questionable what can bedone in a lot of these areas." Grassley, the senior Republican on theSenate committee that oversees Medicare, said he hasn't made up his mindabout a repeal of the waiting period.A possible compromise that could save taxpayers money would be tosubsidize a continuation of employer coverage for disabled workersduring the 24-month wait. Many can keep their benefits now, providedthey pay the full premium, which not all can afford.But that wouldn't help those without job-based coverage.The government already exempts people who need kidney dialysis and thosewith Lou Gehrig's disease from the waiting period.Economist Pamela

Farley Short of Penn State University, who hasresearched the issue, said the waiting period should concern allworkers."It's easy to think it's not going to happen to me," she said. "But whenyou follow people over time, just over 15 percent of those who are 55are going to be on Medicare before they turn 65. That doesn't seem sotrivial."Nearly 7 million disabled people under age 65 are now covered throughMedicare.Of those still waiting for coverage, about 60 percent manage to hang onto private insurance. Many draw down their retirement savings to paypremiums through a previous employer's health plan. Others fall intopoverty and are picked up by Medicaid. As many as one in three, likeMcClain and Frederick, wind up uninsured.McClain was diagnosed with cancer a little more than two years ago. Hewas at work one night when he reached up to scratch his neck and felt abig lump. He

hadn't been feeling particularly well for several months.The next day he started getting dizzy and went to the emergency room.Eventually, the diagnosis came back: a tumor on his left tonsil.McClain doesn't spare himself when it comes to blame. He started smokingcigarettes at 13, and, though he has cut down, has been unable to quit."I don't know how to say how stupid I am for still smoking," he said.His cancer treatment has been arduous: Chemotherapy. Radiation. Afeeding tube. Bouts of depression and anxiety. His weight dropped fromabout 150 pounds to 116. But the cancer seems to be retreating.McClain has begun to feel his energy come back, and he yearns to go backto the machine shop. Yet he is worried about a small area in his throat.And he can't afford to pay for a scan because he lost his insurance atthe end of October."I think I have around $22 in savings," he said. "After

talking with mycreditors and a debt management company, it sounds like bankruptcy. Thefunny part is, I have a perfect payment history to this day, and none ofthem can figure out how I made it this far."Like McClain, Frederick, the former bakery manager, is spiraling towardbankruptcy.Multiple sclerosis is a progressive disease in which the immune systemattacks the protective covering around the nerves. It can lead toparalysis. Frederick was diagnosed in 2002."My MS affects my mobility," said Frederick, of Glen Burnie, Md. "I haveshaky hands and legs. When I lay still at night, I can feel my musclesvibrate. It's like a dim humming and I can't sleep. I stretch my legs,and then I can't bend them."Frederick had to leave the bakery because her hands shook too much todecorate cakes. Then, in the fall of 2007, she lost her fallback job asan event planner. Even with her disability check,

she is behind on rentand utilities. Without health insurance, she can't afford an injectionthat costs around $3,000 each time and helps control her MS. She issupposed to get a treatment every three months. Her last was in July."They tell you to go to school and graduate and get a career," Fredericksaid. "I did all of that, so why is this happening now?"I'm old enough to know that there are things in life that happen thataren't fair," she continued. "I was employed from when I was 15 to whenI was 32. I worked my whole life and I paid into this fund."

[Guest guest]

I only had to wait 2 years. I wonder if they changed it.

God bless you!

To: asthma Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 5:42:36 PMSubject: Re:Question for all

FYI = It is 2 years and 5 months from your approval date for Social Security Disability or Social Security Income. I was just approved for my SSD after fighting with them for 2 years. When they set my approval date it was effective October 2006, so I qualify for Medicare effective April 2009. >> >So you can be on medicare at 50 if you have disabilities?> > > Yep, but you have to wait 2 years, according to this article that> appeared on my Excite homepage today:> > http://apnews. excite.com/ article/20081223 /D958I1GO1. html>