As you know, I've been trying to get Social Security to pay me disability benefits. Part of those benefits include medicare. Having both of these things would make my life easier since the long term disability insurance I have now pays squat. Since I haven't worked in a year and a half, and I have a terminal disease, you would think getting disability benefits would be a fairly simple process, particularly since I have volumes of medical reports to back me up. But, no.
Part of the issue seems to be that at one point, I was on both SSI and disability because of asperger's. There seems to be a lot of confusion in the bureaucracy regarding which claim to follow up on. Never mind that I stopped taking SSI payments when I began working in 2003. It seems that a lot of what was started, never actually was stopped, even though I was working and didn't take any money or benefits from them.
Since I have COBRA insurance, my medical expenses for the most part have been taken care of. Thanks to Obama's subsidy, my COBRA insurance is affordable. However, when I receive medicare, that insurance will go away, as it should, and medicare will become my primary payor. At that time I will get a suplemental medi-gap insurance policy which will cover costs not covered by medicare, and I will pay premiums for that as I do with COBRA. The problem is, since Social Security says I have medicare from my other claim, the COBRA insurance has decided, in the last few weeks, that they will no longer cover my medical expenses. The problem is, I don't have medicare yet.
It seems that I cannot get a straight answer from anyone at Social Security regarding what I am qualified for. I was told I qualified for SSI but then told because of my long term disability insurance that I don't qualify. OK, that I understand. SSI is for people who have no resources and my insurance policy is a resource. Then I was told I was not considered disabled, but was told that decision was for the first claim, not the one I filed in February 2009. Then I was told I did qualify on the second claim and they were waiting on the paperwork. But, then I was told I owe them 13k in back payments on the first claim so they couldn't do anything until that was paid. (I don't have 13k, and I stopped taking payments when I started working. How in the hell they came up with that, I can't begin to guess.) So I am stuck in limbo because Social Security, my insurance company, and the COBRA administrator don't communicate.
The bottom line is this: I had to get fentynal patches today. It cost me $200. I don't have $200 but I need the patches for both pain management and because I'm now physically addicted to fentynal. If I don't wear a patch, I have withdrawal symptoms. So, there's no choice - I spent $200 and got them. I'm luckier then most in that I have family who will give me back $200, but they are struggling in this economy; they are also helping me with my rent because my insurance policy doesn't pay squat. See above.
We need to do something about this fucked up system. This can and will happen to you or someone you know. DON'T GET CANCER.
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