The Truth About Social Security

We talk a lot about health care on this blog. We give statistics, we talk about how unfair the system is. But to really understand the problem you have to walk a day in the shoes of someone who has no health care, or has to rely on the government to get money.

I know what your thinking, because I used to think the same thing. I used to think that those on social security or who have no insurance at all are either down on their luck, very poor, or both. The truth is this kind of situation could happen to anyone. It could happen to your mom, your brother, your best friend, or even a girl who grew up in the suburbs, dreaming of life as an adult.

When I was in school I was different then a lot of children. I thought about world issues and wondered why things are the way they are. At first I tried to get my classmates to participate in these conversations, but they just laughed at me. So I kept these thoughts to myself and waited till the day when I could make the world a better place.

When I was thirteen I was a red belt in karate. I was training for a tournament. I was told to go practice in a small room near the dressing room, and when I went to do a blind kick instead of just hitting air I ended up hitting the door frame to the dressing room and broke a bone in my toe.

That injury caused me to be disabled before my fifteenth birthday.

Seven years later after discovering that despite my best efforts I probably won't be able to hold down enough of a job to keep me afloat financially, I started applying for social security. I believe it was the answer to my prayers. It took two years of rejections and court hearings for the government to finally decide I was telling the truth.

After the court handed down it's ruling my lawyer told me that I could expect somewhere between twenty to thirty thousand dollars in back payments (back payments are the way that the court apologizes for not believing I really am disabled the first time I applied). I was elated.

Two months later I had my first meeting with a social worker. He laid down the ugly truth. He told us that while I will be getting money every month it probably won't add up to more then four-hundred and thirty dollars, and my back payments, after they paid the lawyer, wouldn't amount to more then ten thousand dollars. I was crushed. Still, I believed it couldn't get any worse. Boy was I ever wrong.

Only a couple days after meeting with the social worker the mail started flooding in. Mail about the decision, mail about how to pick a health plan, mail about who was giving me which amount of money. It feels like the mail will never stop coming.

And talk about confusing. My parents and I went through the mail hundreds of times and still didn't understand it. But we did what it told us to do. First we picked a health plan that we thought my doctor accepted. Then we were told they didn't accept it, so we choose a new plan. Then we were told that they were sorry, they didn't accept that plan either. Finally on top of all of this I started to get sicker, and it didn't seem to have to do with any part of the problem that started with the broken toe. My doctor discovered an irregular heart beat.

While it seemed like a horrible thing, the doctor told us that it might be as simple as too much stress. He did some blood tests, and said that if they came back normal (which they did) I would have to have an echo. Then it got worse.

Since the doctor that diagnosed the disease was not part of my new plan, I would need to go to another doctor and get him or her to write out the script for the echo; and that's where the fun started once again.

We called the plans office and asked if there was any doctors in our area that accepted the plan. The woman on the phone came up with one. "Great" we said, and tried to call him; but the number she gave us was a wrong number. Turns out that that doctor doesn't work in our area anymore. So we tried again and got the name of a different doctor. I called the office and asked if they can see me right away. They told me they don't see new patients for another six to seven weeks.

Stumped, I went back to my old doctor's referral office and asked if there was anything they could do turns out they found a clinic very close to my house that can help.

So what should you take from all of this? Should you march on Washington and demand them to change the system or you aren't leaving? Maybe. First and foremost, however you should take the following two things from this story:

First, know that this could happen to anyone. It doesn't matter what race you are, how old or young, or even what social class you originally came from. All that has to happen is for you to get sick and not be able to pay for your doctor bills.

Second, remember how long it took me to get a simple test on something that could be very serious. Know that it shouldn't be this way, and know that if we don't do something it will stay this way. So write your congressman have forums, or even just talk about this to someone who may have false beliefs about it.

I might not be the last person to go through this program, but I'm hoping that soon there will be one last person. I hope you learned something from this, and I hope that you will do something about it. Thank you.

Blessed be,

Artistinme82