The United States Social Security Administration is proposing to remove diabetes from its list of disorders for which Social Security disability compensation and medical care will be granted.
The rationale for this decision is that medical science has improved diagnosis and treatment of diabetes so greatly that the disease can be completely controlled and therefore not impair one's employment ability.
In any nation with single-payer national health coverage, the Social Security proposal would make perfect sense, because of course all those who develop diabetes would be able to control it and be therefore able to work.
Not so in the United States, however.
The assumption – and fatal flaw -- in this pollyanna proposal is that everyone who develops diabetes can afford the diagnosis and treatment costs necessary to control it. In other words, if you cannot afford private insurance, or you work for an employer who does not give you health insurance, or you are unemployed, and you develop diabetes, you are shit out of luck as far as getting any help from Social Security. In a truly warped afterthought, however, the proposal will continue to allow compensation for disorders such as blindness, loss of limbs, etc. caused by undiagnosed or untreated diabetes!
According to the CDC, diabetes afflicts some 24 million people in the U.S., or nearly 8 percent of the the total population. Another 57 million people are estimated to have pre-diabetes.
The American Diabetes Association calculates that people with diabetes spend an average of $11,744 per year on health care expenses. (That average, I might point out, is some three grand more than my entire yearly income.)
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 15.4 percent of the U.S. population (46.3 million) has no health insurance coverage whatsoever, and only 58.5 percent of people employed are given health coverage. (U.S. Census Bureau, "Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2008, issued September, 2009).
Any way you crunch the above numbers, it's obvious that many people who develop diabetes will be unable to afford adequate or even minimal medical care. Adult onset type 2 diabetes is the most prevalent and most rapidly increasing form of diabetes, likely due to government-enabled (through tax breaks and regulatory frauds) promotion of unhealthy foods and ubiquitous uses of diabetes-causing chemicals in military, agricultural, institutional, and home applications. Thus, while our tax money has supported the very activities responsible for much of the skyrocketing increase in diabetes nationwide, our own contributions to Social Security funds are being spent devising ways to deny us the benefits we supposedly pay for in those monthly deductions from our pay.
The comment period for Social Security's proposal to de-list diabetes ends on February 12, 2010. So far as I can discover, the proposal has not been given any attention whatsoever in either national media or medical or social websites. Read the Federal Register notice linked at the top for yourself and send comments per their instructions. And raise hell with the media and your legislators!
UPDATE:
Thanks for your comments. By request, I'm putting the contact information up here for faster access:
DATES: To ensure that your comments are considered, we must receive them by no later than February 12, 2010.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments by any one of four methods--Internet, fax, mail, or hand-delivery.
Do not submit the same comments multiple times or by more than one method. Regardless of which method you choose, please state that your comments refer to Docket No. SSA-2006-0114 so that we may associate your comments with the correct regulation.
Caution: You should be careful to include in your comments only information that you wish to make publicly available. We strongly urge you not to include in your comments any personal information, such as Social Security numbers or medical information.
1. Internet: We strongly recommend this method for submitting your comments. Visit the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. Use the Search function of the webpage to find
docket number SSA-2006-0114, then submit your comment. Once you submit your comment, the system will issue you a tracking number to confirm
your submission. You will not be able to view your comment immediately as we must manually post each comment. It may take up to a week for your comment to be viewable.
2. Fax: Fax comments to (410) 966-2830.
3. Mail: Address your comments to the Commissioner of Social Security, P.O. Box 17703, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-7703.
4. Hand-delivery: Deliver your comments to the Office of Regulations, Social Security Administration, 137 Altmeyer Building,
6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21235-6401, between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., Eastern Time, business days.
Comments are available for public viewing on the Federal eRulemaking portal at:
http://www.regulations.gov
or in person, during regular business hours, by arranging with the contact person identified below.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Judy Hicks, Office of Medical Listings Improvement, Social Security Administration, 6401 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, Maryland 21235-6401, (410) 965-1020.
For information on eligibility or filing for benefits, call our national toll-free number,
1-800-772-1213, or TTY 1-800-325-0778, or visit our Internet site, Social Security Online, at http://www.socialsecurity.gov.
UPDATE 2: CLARIFICATION FROM THE COMMENTS
No one has EVER been found disabled just because they were
diagnosed with diabetes, that is NOT what this proposed rule change
does.
The "Listing" actually lists the criteria for how severe thesymptoms of diabetes must be for someone to "meet a listing." You practically have to be at death's door usually. In any event, to get disability benefits a person has to have symptoms/test results for a condition/disorder/illness, etc., that are severe, expected to last 12 months or longer, or end in death prior to the 12 month duration requirement, and prevent the person from performing substantial gainful activity on a sustained basis.
The first question SSA asks is: are you working? If so, how much are you making? If you are making over X amount, and it's not a large amount (and it's gross wages or net self-employment income) per month, you are automatically not disabled.
If you are drawing unemployment benefits you may also be denied benefits, as SSA does not consider that you are trying to stay alive & perhaps even stay in your home (support your family). In SSA's view, if you are receiving unemployment you are ostensibly holding yourself out as able to work--therefore you cannot be disabled. And if you are under 49 it is much harder to be found disabled, because you are considered to be vocationally adaptable or able to do unskilled sedentary work.
As for "it doesn't take long"--how does 5 years sound? How about waiting up to 2 years or more to get a hearing before an administrative law judge (after 6 months or more going through the initial & reconsideration stages)? More years if you're denied at the hearing level--not months but YEARS. Check the stats. For example, in Oregon only 20% of those who apply are found disabled at the initial level. Maybe another 20% of those who request reconsideration (i.e., appeal) are found disabled upon reconsideration. It can take much longer.
PLUS, there is a 24 month waiting period before you become entitled to Medicare benefits. Meaning, if you are found disabled, you have to receive (or have been entitled to receive) monthly cash disability benefits for 24 months before you become entitled to Medicare. If you add the 6 month waiting period during which you do not receive SSDI cash benefits, that means you will have been disabled according to Social Security rules for 30 MONTHS before you are entitled to Medicare coverage.
You could suffer quite a bit of ketoacidosis, peripheral neuropathy, high pressure in your eyes (leading to diabetic retinopathy and eventually, blindness), cardiovascular problems, etc. during that 30 months without medical care now, couldn't you? Don't think COBRA benefits last that long, assuming you had the cash to pay the premiums.
Those who are saying,"well why should people get benefits just for being diagnosed with diabetes," should go to SSA's website & READ THE LISTING, Listing 9.08, before they comment so they actually have some idea of what they're commenting on.