Social Security: Tell the Government I Want My Money Back!

When I first started working at the tender age of 16, like most young workers, I paid little attention to the corner section of my paycheck marked social security/Medicaid. Well that little section over the years has slashed thousands of dollars of my hard earned money from my annual pay. Now that I'm a little older, I take a lot more interest in the deductions from my pay check. I work hard for my money, who doesn't?

The media has over recent years began to up-play the social security/Medicaid dilemma. Millions of dollars in federal budget cuts every year affect these benefits. Scathing headlines attack the policy makers of our nation for reducing and eliminating benefits under these programs every year. Why, by the time I am old enough to apply for these benefits I will be afforded little comfort in the fact that the government will have planned for my retirement by allotting me two thousand dollars for a funeral and I might be able to pay for an aspirin if I wind up in the emergency room with no other insurance.

What really got my dander up about this issue? Well, it was personal experience with the Social Security Disability Benefits process. All through our adult working lives we are told repeatedly not to worry about if we do not save for unfortunate circumstances because the government has a program in place to help those who cannot or do not prepare for a life crisis. While most prudent persons continue to save for eventualities despite this advice, many a middle income working family can afford little savings, certainly not enough to support themselves and their families if an injury or health condition suddenly removes them as a viable worker in the economy. Many studies, done by the agency which runs these programs, report that in the next twenty years there will be no funds left for those who are now the backbone of the system, paying in to the funds on a regular basis.

Like many other middle income families, my husband and I gave little thought to an unexpected crisis of this magnitude. We had a small nest egg that we felt reasonable, and planned to increase and invest as we grew older. That plan came to a halt four years ago when my husband was injured at work and was effectively "taken off the market" so to speak. Now many people might ask, well why isn't the company he worked for paying for his injury? He worked for himself, as do many. Self employed insurance does little good as a supplemental income when you cannot work to pay the premiums. My husband, we found, was a worker that was left out of the all encompassing plan for people with disabilities. The federal government simply did not have the foresight to include self employed workers into their "retirement and disability" plan.

When my husband was injured, we entered into the limbo of those awaiting for benefits from the government. We were confident that this would be little cause for concern as we had both paid in our fair share of dues to this fail safe plan over the years. Boy were we wrong. We discovered a whole new side to the federal government, the I don't give a darn just keep giving us our money side. For four years we struggled to comply with regulations, obtain medical records through the ever cynical medical system which charges exorbitant amounts to see a Doctor and even more outrageous fees to copy their records for your personal retention. We learned about rules, regulations, exemptions, limitations, deadlines, exclusions, legal definitions, and all kinds of really nasty things that we just never thought we would have the need to know.

Finally, after four years of struggling to keep our heads above water, budgeting and re budgeting, gutting our savings and rescheduling our personal lives to jump through the hoops the federal government demanded we do in order to apply for these supposedly available benefits, we got a court date, we were going to see a judge, it was all over. Suddenly after four years of correspondence with the Social Security benefits office we found ourselves on an impossible deadline. We received a letter that told us we had two weeks to prepare for our court date. This meant we had to find and obtain legal counsel, collect all the medical records documenting our case from every Doctor he had ever seen, obtain complete pharmacy records of any medications he had been subscribed, obtain statements from any employer he had ever had and any he had applied to or worked for during this period. Most of us can't even fathom how complected this process is, let alone how long it takes to obtain all these records. If even one record was missing, we risked being denied benefits. Let me tell you, some doctors are extremely sensitive about you taking your medical records to the government for the purpose of applying for benefits. In fact, we had several doctors who just flat out refused to give them to us to remove from their office.

When we got to the court appointment this ill mannered surly looking woman led us through a barrage of questionnaires, hustling us along as if she were going to be put to the guillotine if we were not through the mountain of paperwork set before us in the next half hour. We were questioned about why we had not obtained a lawyer. When we explained that the county we lived in had no licensed social security lawyers and that to find one we had called over all of greens earth and back only to find that the lawyers that did call us back were at the closest and hour and a half away from our home and had a two to three month waiting time for appointments, we were told that's not the federal governments problem remember, we were given two weeks to gather everything this court desired to look at, by ourselves. We tried calling all those fancy TV lawyers only to be told we had to be denied benefits before his case would be taken. We made numerous unnecessary trips to medical offices and hospitals and pharmacies to obtain documentation. But this wasn't the federal governments problem.

You can't imagine the sour taste in my mouth when my husband went before the judge and was told the federal government wasn't interested in his problems. This judge disqualified the testimony of their own court appointed physician citing that he was a general practitioner and not a specialist in the area of his injury. The Doctor, by the way, had recommended in statements to the court that my husband was indeed eligible for benefits as the extent of his injuries limited him to the point that he was literally unemployable. The judge disregarded his medical records since they were not complete. (remember the thing about if one single document was missing? We had a doctor who had performed surgery on him who did not send the complete records to the court but only what he felt would be pertinent, which by the way, also verified the court appointed doctors testimony).

This Judge decided since I had given birth during the time that my husband was awaiting a court date to apply for benefits that he was a perfectly healthy male able to completely function in the workplace. (exact words people "seeing as how the plaintiffs wife was able to give birth during this time I feel that he is not disabled to function applicable working abilities".) The Judge further decided that since my husband admittedly smoked cigarettes, a pack every two days or so, our family was perfectly capable of affording the medical care which was necessary to eliminate pain and swelling in his limbs, and the continued physical therapy which insurance would not pay for. Think about that, if my husband didn't spend two dollars and fifty cents every two days to support his nicotine habit, the federal government felt that he would be able to pay for the thousands of dollars of physical therapy which insurance would not allow and the hundreds of dollars a month in pain and inflammation medication which would be required to allow him to function reasonably in the work place, if the physical therapy and numerous surgeries and other treatments worked and he healed as the textbook said he should, barring any complications. Well, let's all of us quit smoking right now, we will be so much richer.

So, since I could give birth, and my husband smoked, my husband was denied social security benefits. The judge told him frankly that if he wanted benefits he must obtain a lawyer. Sound like a promotion for services there? Hmm. It was not the federal governments problem that he could not work. It was not the federal governments problem that every attempt he had made to be employed was met with denial, according the the numerous statements we had obtained from the employers willing to give him one since most of them feared being sued for admitting that his disability was the reason they did not employ him or had let him go shortly after. It was not the federal governments problem that we could not obtain legal council in the two week time period allotted before the court hearing. It was not the federal governments problem period.

If it's the not the federal governments problem, frankly, I want my money back. I have paid in thousands of dollars to support these benefits programs with no input from me. I say to the government, it's not my problem that this country has a drug epidemic. It's not my problem that people on drugs can't work because they are strung out and the government feels it's OK to give them a handout. It is not my problem that there are too many people who sit on their butts and refuse to work because they are allowed a handout from the government. If my husband doesn't qualify for benefits because I can give birth, I WANT MY MONEY BACK. and so does every other hard working American who has a family member who doesn't qualify for benefits because of petty excuses by the people who run these programs to not allow them to have the benefits.