Bias against the disabled is as American as apple pie
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-obrien-social-security-disability-insurance-20150122-story.htmlThe wording may be vague, but the intention is clear. And while many are right in surmising that it's a move to push an overhaul of Social Security retirement benefits, it also presents an opportunity for conservative lawmakers who have been calling for larger reforms in disability programs....
It's also critical that we appreciate the role these programs play in our postindustrial economy and our post-welfare-reform social safety net. But as we work to improve these programs, we must not let the rhetoric of fraud, abuse and “welfare queens” that accompanied the end of welfare as we know it in the 1990s frame the conversation.
Americans generally are skeptical of individuals who receive government benefits, biased to think that they are undeserving. It may be our unyielding belief in everyone's ability to bootstrap his or her way to success through hard work or just the way we esteem self-sufficiency. In the context of cash welfare, research shows that this bias leads us to assume all benefit recipients are lazy. In the context of disability — where benefits are predicated on the existence of a qualifying health condition — our skepticism toward recipients of government assistance may influence the way we evaluate their health.
= new reply since forum marked as read
It sounds like it would more than pay for itself by your comments.
Do the same to the IRS like the old days.
OS
Seems like a winner to me.
She refers to Eric Conn...he was the focus of a bit on 60 Minutes. It was about him and some SSA judges that awarded a high number of SSDI claims in a small region of KY, as compared to the rest of the country. However, 60 Minutes made it sound like fraud was rampant all over the country.
A couple of days ago, ThinkingAbout was saying her vast knowledge about SSDI fraud was based on things she saw on Judge Judy 
.
I'm a SSDI recipient. Fortunately, my claim was awarded on it's initial application without any lawyers, appeals or judges. SSDI, is not based on household income. However, some DUers believe that recipients should be wearing sackcloth and driving junk cars, or not be driving at all. How dare we live in decent housing, go out from time to time to dinner or movies, travel, or have other conveniences that normal people have like smartphones (yes, that was actually said).
What the Republicans are doing is trying to force us to stay in our hovels, because really who likes seeing a person with a disability out and about, force us out of Medicare, and really just force us into life or death decisions...hoping we'll choose the latter. And if they succeed, then they can repeal other pesky laws like the ADA, IDEA...yes, I'm looking at you Rand Paul.
There's clearly a lot of fraud in them because the way many people drive it's clear they never, ever could have passed any sort of legitimate driver's test.
Ah, it's the stench of right wing "talking points" and propaganda... It permeates political discourse in the U.S.A., even on protected center-left sites like DU.
You are very right. Every person I can think of that is getting away with what they perceive as "something" has an inside connection to "the system".
However, many of these hard-up people (and yes, you've got to be hard-up to try and pull this sort of crap!) become quite devastated when they find out that the fatty pension they are drawing w/benefits is changed once they become "disabled". They MUST enroll in A/B Medicare and they get dropped from their former insurance.
They squeal like little piglets when they find this out and realize that the hole they have dug for themselves is not so easy to crawl out of.
As a disabled person it angers me that people get away with this but it is even more interesting to me to watch it backfire on them when they begin to realize that the world in which a truly disabled person lives in is not so hot; in fact it truly sucks along with the horrid stigma that goes with it! As for the seemingly constant reviews, etc., I often wonder why they bother with folks that have illnesses for which there is no real viable treatment/cure as is my case.
Good post btw. 
Are retired already. They do not want to wait until they are old enough to collect SSA so they are filing for SSDI benefits.
They think they are winning until they realize that their former employer demands they enroll in Part B Medicare which is something they had not realized -- that Medicare is part of the deal.
Once they find this out, often too late, they are having little fits because the insurance they once had, the insurance that came to their home when they needed physical therapy is no longer an option as they must present themselves at a physical therapy office and take what is available and also they are now confined to the physical therapy benefits that Medicare provides.
Anything above and beyond what Medicare pays (aka a "supplemental plan"
is a little bit of gravy but you can bet it is not much gravy so to speak.
Frankly, people that do things like this out of GREED in most cases deserve exactly what they get IMO which is = diminished health care in most cases.
Oh well ... just proves it doesn't pay to "game" the system as it tends to backfire!
The case of physical therapy that I present, is just one of many in the case of Medicare v. private insurance that these people that are doing quite well already are shocked to find out that this is what they now get when they get greedy and want their benefits NOW rather than later!
