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Feb 5, 2009

Social Security Hastens To Approve Disability Claim For Man Needing Heart Transplant

I posted about the article in the Spartanburg (SC) Herald Journal about a man who needs a heart transplant who had been denied Social Security disability benefits. The newspaper is now reporting that the man has now been approved by Social Security.

There have always been media stories about Social Security claimants who have been denied. I never saw any systemic effort by Social Security to speed up adjudication in those cases until the last year or so. Now, it happens virtually every time that a newspaper or television station runs a story about a person who has been denied Social Security disability benefits. This is not happening by accident. This has to be coming down from the Commissioner's office.

Doing this gives readers or viewers the mistaken impression that the report that they saw or heard was an isolated example, but this is wrong. There are terrible systemic problems.

Hastening to solve the problems of individual claimants who are featured in the media is terrible public policy. Instead of trying to mislead the public about its problems, the agency should be telling the newspapers and television stations the truth, that it is doing the best it can, but that it is badly understaffed and underfunded.

Barack Obama has talked about using another controversy as a "teachable moment." Commissioner Astrue needs to consider the concept and consider what his obligations are as a public servant.

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