A dozen Linn County residents will attend a Social Security Administration hearing [held by Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue] Wednesday in Chicago to learn about benefit changes for people with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers.
The Alzheimer’s Association is pushing to eliminate a two-year wait for disability benefits [they must mean Medicare] after someone is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s, said Kelly Hauer, executive director of the group’s Eastern Iowa chapter. Typically, those people lose their jobs and their insurance, causing financial and emotional distress, she said.
It would help if Social Security permitted them to collect a so-called “compassionate allowance,” Hauer said.
The Linn County delegation, including Alzheimer’s sufferers and their care partners, was invited to attend the hearing in Chicago. They won’t testify but will submit written statements.
“It’s a big deal,” Hauer said.
Jul 26, 2009
Alzheimer's Group To Attend Hearing
From the Cedar Rapids Gazette:
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2 comments:
Typically all those who are totally disabled lose their jobs and their insurance and have to wait 2 1/2 years for Medicare. This is why we need to disconnect health insurance from employers. It creates artificially low risk insured people when you allow only those healthy enough to work. This is why government health insurance programs are so costly - they get the poor, the disabled and the elderly.
Another consideration with Alzheimers is that it is progressive in nature. Unless you know at what stage someone is it will be difficult to determine if the condition prevents him/her from doing all types of work. My mother had Alzheimers and would have been able to work the first couple of years after diagnosis since she could still do routine things. This is a problem disability determinations for a number of truly debilitating diseases and even some terminal illenesses.
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