It desperately needs to be overhauled but there are very few in DC who have the political kahunas to even attempt it.
I think the way to fix it is to get rid of it. I have thought about ways to fix it, as I was on it, for quite a few years. But, with the benefit of more time to ponder it, the only solution is to totally get rid of it.
Let me tell you 'bout my experiences.................. (this will probably rival one of Selma's posts, so you are warned.)
OK, get cancer, go to hospital, things go horribly wrong, go on disability, somehow survive, yet things are still (and will be, until I assume room temperature) horribly wrong.
Employer sends letter demanding I file for Socialist Insecurity Disability.
"Why? What did the gubbament have to do with any of this?" Ignore letter.
Get another one. Ignore it. Then, an official one arrives, informing me that if I do not file, within the next x number of days, that I will be terminated, and lose all benefits.
Humorless fascist money-grubbing twits.
So, file, and the gubbament agrees I am disabled. Start to receive monthly checks. Big deal.
Here is why my employer was so adamant about it: they reduce my disability stipend by the amount the gubbament sends to me.
Big incentive to dump me off on someone else. Wrong, on so many levels. But, anyway..............
Five years go by. Still disabled, and still going to rehab/physical therapy three times a week. (With little progress. And the medical insurance folks are not amused.) Gubbament sends me a letter, stating it is that time for a review, and I am most likely no longer disabled.
So, I wind up talking to some claim reviewer. It was on a Friday, and right before lunch, and I guess he was looking forward to cutting out early, and was in a talkative mood.
"Well, here is what it looks like. It looks like you are severely impaired, and that affects your ability to do your job. But, there is a difference between 'severely impaired', and having trouble doing your job and being 'disabled' and unable to perform your job."
(Like being in the hospital, getting sliced open, poisoned and who knows what else they did to me. Yes, at that time I really was unable to do ANYTHING. Except kvetch. Did lots of that.)
"And on top of that....................look here.................see this red stamp, at the top of your claim? Where it says 'improvement expected'. Let me tell you what that means, and it isn't hard to understand. You had cancer. We decided that made you disabled. But, that was 5 years ago. In 5 years, you are either cured or dead. You clearly are not dead, so we are going to conclude that you are no longer disabled. It stinks, I know, because you are 'severely impaired', and probably always will be. That is just how the system works."
Square peg, square hole. Round peg, round hole. Octagonal hole...............screw it, throw it away. Pretty much how they, and the insurance companies, work. Unusual case fall in a crack, and get tossed away.
Eventually, I end up in front of an administrative law judge. First words out of his mouth were "I see your doctor is so-and-so. That is disappointing. I see too many of his patients."
"Maybe that is because he gets all the patients the other doctors have given up on."
Yeah, the outcome of this was predetermined.
Next step is Federal court, and my employer was not willing to pay for legal representation, so end of my days on the gubbament dole. And they get stuck paying me the full amount, due under the disability insurance policy.
No skin off of my back, right?
WRONG!
Found out, many years later, that by kicking me off of gubbament disability, that screws me if I live long enough to file for retirement benefits. (I have, but have not filed.)
Here is what they do to screw you:
All the years that you are disabled do not count into figuring your retirement benefit.
Unless you are receiving gubbament disability. It is if they never existed. None of my disability stipends count towards retirement, as there were no FICA deductions. So, essentially, I have been unemployed, the last x number of years. Which means I will get diddly-squat, when I try to get retirement benefits.
Good thing I don't count of the gubbament for anything, and am used to being poor. Because that is my future.
So, several problems, that need to be addressed:
1.) Employers have a strong incentive to dump folks off on the gubbament. Saves them $$$$.
2.) Disabled workers have a strong incentive (even though I bet none of them know this) that if you really are "disabled", and can not work, unless the gubbament concurs, you are basically unemployed, and you will get diddly-squat, if you live to retirement.
Two possible remedies:
1.) If you have disability, through your employer, you can not file for gubbament disability. Problem is no employer will offer disability insurance, and everyone sponges off of the gubbament. Bad idea.
2.) Do away with gubbament disability. Find some way to address the issue of problem of being disabled, without the gubbament having to certify you as such. Would probably mean FICA deductions, from disability stipends. Which means a new tax, and who wants to support that one, on the poor disabled? Yeah, that probably won't happen. Oh well.
Next up: actually going to the Socialist Insecurity office, and dealing with gubbament drones!
