Topic: Public Policy
About forty-seven million people in the US lack health insurance coverage. I wonder how many of these people are chronically ill/disabled who can't get on Disability even though their medical conditions are on the Social Security Administration's list of qualifying disabling conditions? How many would be or should be able to qualify for Medicaid through their state, but can't because their state gutted their Medicaid program, or because they are childless or have grown children and live in a state where Medicaid only covers families with minor children?
For far too many of the chronically ill/disabled the idea of Disability serving as a safety net is a joke and a hoax. I wonder how many people in this country who have qualifying disabling conditions are being denied Disability and are instead shunted onto Welfare, their health conditions largely ignored?
In how many states have the rules and “games” regarding Disability eligibility become downright cruel for those suffering from life altering medical conditions? How many people are living with untreated and unmanaged conditions which are being allowed to worsen, which can include living with chronic pain and discomfort, that degrades and destroys their quality of life and will ultimately shorten their lifespans, all unnecessarily?
I live in a state where the rules are rather strict and stingy regarding who can qualify for Disability. A majority of the illnesses listed on the Federal SSA list of Disabling Conditions don’t apply in this state, and a number of them are completely ignored when it comes to the state Medicaid program, which is one of those only-for-families-with-minor-children set-ups. The ‘unofficial’ rule, the 'game' you're expected to play for Disability eligibility is: Working aged adults who become chronically ill/disabled, who aren’t either HIV+, or terminally ill and expected to live no more than 12 months, are basically expected to have themselves “diagnosed” with some type of mental illness in order to qualify for Disability. That’s the way it goes. Either fake a mental illness or you likely won’t be able to get on Disability. It's the way the game is played. So it becomes decision making time, play the game and fake a psychological/psychiatric problem, or go without care. Yeah, it’s a tough choice, but it’s a game some of us won’t play, so you learn to go without and have extremely spotty access to the most basic of medical care even though it’s to the detriment to your health.
Is it even Federally Constitutional to have a State’s Disability system set up this way, especially considering there are legal implications involved to a mental health diagnosis that don’t exist when you’re talking about all other illnesses?
Do an excellent job at faking a mental illness and worst case scenario- you’ll wind up in a locked psychiatric ward, heavily drugged…even worse- you could be judged mentally incompetent. On the other hand, do a great job at faking a bad back and the worst that will happen to you is you’ll have an MRI, be given cortisone or a pain killer, and you’ll undergo physical therapy. Big difference there, isn’t it?
What exactly are the medical and legal implications to being diagnosed as too mentally ill to work- too mentally ill to be a self-supporting, fully functioning member of society? Obviously these issues must be awkward enough for the genuinely mentally ill to deal with, but what exactly are people who are faking a mental illness in order to get on Disability because they cannot get on it via their true medical conditions really getting themselves into?
When people fake a mental illness for Disability eligibility, do they wind up having a Psychiatrist as their assigned Medicare/Medicaid primary care physician? Are they less likely to end up seeing the specialists they genuinely need, such as a rheumatologist, an orthopedist, or a cardiologist? Are they pushed or forced to take psychotropic drugs that they don’t really need and shouldn’t be taking in the first place, even if they experience negative or uncomfortable side-effects? Are they more likely to be unnecessarily placed on tranquillizers? Are they more likely to have their real medical conditions ignored- improperly or inadequately treated, or not taken seriously- because of their mental illness status? Do they lose some of their autonomy and decision making abilities regarding their medical care in ways that don’t happen to those diagnosed with other illnesses? Can they, under certain circumstances, lose their right to refuse certain types of treatments or therapies because of their mental illness label?
Does anyone in State government who pushes chronically ill/disabled people to have themselves diagnosed with faux mental illnesses in order to qualify for Disability ever pay attention to what the consequences are for these people? How do these consequences play out when the disabled person ‘faking’ a mental illness is young and/or very much undereducated- someone not fully understanding of the gist of these implications?
Why is it often easier and faster to be granted Disability for mental illness than other medical conditions? I'm not talking about serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, or severe cases of post traumatic stress disorder diagnosed in soldiers returning home from war... It's much easier for people in some states to get on Disability with a general depression or anxiety diagnosis then for those with painful and disabling rheumatological, respiratory, and cardiac conditions. Yes, I understand that some people have such severe forms of depression and anxiety that they cannot function properly at all in their lives, cannot function well enough to hold down a job; but is it fair to have a system where any mental health issue label, even flimsy ones designed 'just' to get someone on public assistance, can automatically result in an “Approved” stamp on a Disability application, while people suffering from disabling physical ailments are turned down? And some are forced to spend years fighting for eligibility, and may never be approved anyway?
We have a system in some states that actively encourages game playing, illness diagnosis faking/swapping for eligibility, and adds a definite sleaze factor when it comes to getting the chronically ill/disabled with physical ailments on Disability. This is something that needs to change.
Posted by juncohyemalis
at 8:01 PM EST
