Why using assets to determine benefits eligibility sucks

October 28, 2012

Let’s take two identical people, Jane and Mary.  Jane and Mary each graduate from college and get good jobs in the same city.  Each earns $45,000 per year.

Jane goes on some trips, but tries not to spend too much.  She uses frequent flier miles to go to Europe.  She brings her lunch to work every day.  She lives in a nice apartment, but it’s nothing fancy, and it’s definitely not her ideal.  She buys decent clothes, but tries not to spend too much.  She manages to save $10,000 each year.  She puts most of her savings into a retirement account, and keeps some handy in a savings account, just in case she needs it.

Mary goes on a fancy vacation every year, spending as she pleases.  She eats out all the time and goes to fancy clubs with high cover charges.  She lived in a luxury apartment for a bit, but now owns a condo in a trendy neighborhood.  She goes to the expensive department stores to buy high-end clothes and shoes.  She keeps around $200 in her checking account.  She doesn’t have any savings, but she doesn’t mind.

Now, Jane and Mary each get sick and have to stop working.  They both apply for SSDI.  Then they need to apply for other services too, like SSI and food stamps.  Mary is able to apply for all of these but Jane is not eligible to even apply for SSI or food stamps.  Why?  Because Jane has savings!

You see, someone decided that to get a lot of federal and state services and aide, what matters is not only income, but also assets, but for some reason they do not count houses toward the asset limits.  So Mary can get extra services that she can use to pay her mortgage, but Jane does not get these services to help pay her rent.  Mary gets help buying food, but Jane does not get help buying food.  Jane did what she was “supposed” to do – she saved for the future.  Now, the government is telling her to spend down all of her hard-earned savings before she can get their help.  And if she needs the money later?  Too bad.  To get help now, Jane needs to spend the money that she could otherwise use in a few years for extra medical bills, food, or clothes.

Now, suppose Mary and Jane both get these extra benefits, after Jane spends all of her savings.  After a few years, Jane and Mary are ready to go back to work!  Yay!  Mary is back where she started (minus a few years of work experience.)  On the other hand, Jane is now behind.  In addition to the same lack of work experience, Jane has also spent her retirement and other savings, and now has to start over.

Guess who I am?  Yup, that’s right.  I keep discovering that there are all sorts of services I can’t get, or even apply for, because I have savings.  Since they don’t look at real estate in calculating assets, I could take all of my savings and buy a house and then I’d get those services…. but I don’t want a house!  Why should I have to spend down my hard-earned savings?  I have spent my entire life (well, almost – I started saving when I was 10) building this up, and I resent being told that I’d get more help now if I’d wasted that money on martinis, fancy cars, designer purses, and the newest electronic gadgets.  I understand that help should be reserved for only those who need it, but if a house isn’t counted towards assets, then I don’t think my retirement fund should be either.  If they want me to spend down the money in my checking account, that’s annoying but fair.  But my retirement account should be off limits!

Our system is broken in many ways, and I believe this is one of them.  After all, if I need to spend more than SSDI provides for new sneakers, an umbrella, unexpected medications, or some other “luxury,” then wouldn’t it be better if I could spend my own money on it?  It would sure be a better use of the cash than buying Hermes bags…. which I don’t even want.

5 Comments | Expectations, Frustration, Politics, Rants | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Looking for the government-provided cheese

October 22, 2012

As I type this sentence I have been on hold for 1 hour 55 minutes.  No, that’s not an exaggeration or some sort of typing mistake.  I have actually been on hold for almost two hours.

I have spent a lot of time on the phone for health stuff over the last few months.  There have been a few minutes at a time with doctors.  There have been a few 20-30 minute calls with my lawyer.  Then there have been long wait times of 10, 20, 60+ minutes to deal with social security, medicaid, and long term disability insurance.  Getting help seems to involve hours and hours on the phone.

In hindsight, I sort of wish I’d kept track of the wait times.  I think it would be interesting to see.  When I tell healthy friends about what I go through, they’re shocked – and I have it easy!  I’m lucky enough to have the patience and skills to deal with this bullshit!  What about the people who don’t have that?

Although, my patience is wearing very, very thin…..

There’s this idea that there’s a ton of free government money just out there for the taking, and lots of immoral people are taking advantage of it.  I’ve heard that more times than I can count.  The reality is that there’s very little government support and even when you’re completely deserving and completely qualified, it’s almost impossible to get the support.

It’s a beautiful autumn day here in New England.  The sky is blue, the trees are yellow & orange & red, the sun is shining, and I’m still in my living room.  A friend and I were going to meet at her office for lunch and eat outside.  We cancelled that picnic because I was still on hold and didn’t want to hang up and miss out on my chance to get legal help to appeal my denial of state medicaid services.  Maybe I can take a short walk after I eventually get off the phone?  But there are more phone calls to make, more help to seek.

I’m thinking of a mouse in a maze looking for cheese, but I think that to make the comparison more accurate, we’d have to add a playful cat to the maze.  That sounds about right.  Because the government and private insurance companies are doing everything they can to avoid giving people the aid that they provide.  I’m just going to keep trying to dodge that cat.

And speaking of cheese, I haven’t even had lunch yet because of the long hold time!  Time to forage for food…..

4 Comments | Frustration, Healthcare, Limitations, Politics, Rants | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Impatience: wanting to just DO something

October 15, 2012

I’ve always been a very impatient person with certain things.  I have endless patience with children, and I love to teach adults some things.  With myself, though, I have very high standards and I get very impatient.  I feel that I should be doing more, or that I could be doing better.  My current impatience, though, is for something that’s completely out of my control at the moment: my future.

This is nothing new, but until now I’ve been writing and thinking about this as frustration.  It’s frustration too, of course, but that doesn’t negate the impatience aspect.  I was trying to better define some of my own emotions this evening when it hit me that I’ve never experienced impatience like this, and that’s why I didn’t define it as such.  I’ve never felt so little control over my future.

In the past, I worked towards new career goals, flirted with cuties in the hopes of finding someone great, moved to a new apartment when I wanted to try a new neighborhood.  I’m not suggesting these things are easy, but I could do them.  Now, I’m stuck.  I’m dealing with crappy agencies telling me that I’m not sick enough for benefits, but at the same time I’m not healthy enough to work.  I can’t earn any money, which is so incredibly limiting.  I will have to move soon, but it will be to a much smaller apartment, in a town that I don’t want to live in, and I can’t even do it until I hear back about the long term disability (ltd) insurance appeal (because if I lose, I’ll have to move in with my parents instead.)  I don’t feel healthy enough to date, so I don’t even try to meet anyone.  I feel stuck.

At the same time, while I’m stuck, I’m also dreaming.  Before I had to stop working last year, I started thinking about ways to earn side income.  It’s not easy, but people can earn money by creating and monetizing web sites, by writing and selling ebooks, and by designing web apps.  I did some consulting in an area where I have some expertise and made some plans to expand that.  I’m not suggesting that I’d earn a full-time salary from these things, but they could provide some extra cash.  The problem is, I don’t feel up to doing them right now, and even if I did, doing any sort of work could mess up the ltd appeal.  I’m forced to not work!  I know I can’t hold down a job with set hours, even a part time one, but I bet I could do something small.  Maybe I could write an ebook, just a little bit at a time.  I could do some consulting, maybe a few hours a month.  I can’t do much, but I could do something and that would feel so good!

I’ve focused on the frustration of not being able to do anything in the present, and that let me ignore the frustration of my uncertain future, but today it hit me.  I was doing some online reading about more alternative ways of earning an income (because I’m realizing that I never want to sit at a desk for 40 hours a week again, even when I can.)  I was thinking about all of the ways I could make these other careers work for me.  And then I remembered that I’m far away from being able to try any of them!  I know I might not try them all, and maybe none of them would work, but it would feel so good to just try!

Then I was reading about some personal finance methods.  The ideas were great, and I was so excited to try them…. until I remembered that I have no income with which to try anything.  Until I earn some money, and build up my savings, I can’t try anything financial.  Again, I’m stuck.  And again, I’m impatient.  I hate doing nothing…. I want to try something!

I’m glad that I’m researching all of these ideas.  This way, if/when I can one day go back to work, I’ll already have ideas for careers to try and ways to save my money.  I won’t have to waste time figuring all of this out.  Still, that’s little comfort right now.  Right now, I get excited about these ideas I can’t try, impatient to just test them out.  I just hope that one day, I get the chance.

4 Comments | Expectations, Frustration, Limitations, Rants, Unpredictable | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

Which treatment might have done it?

October 9, 2012

M scoffs at me when I refuse to try multiple treatments at once.  She thinks I’m just dragging my feet, trying to avoid being proactive.  The truth is, with other parts of my life that is totally true and she’s nail me.  But when it comes to medical treatments, she’s way off base – I just don’t want to have something work without knowing which treatment it is.  And if something goes wrong, I need to know which treatment it is then, too.

Today a relative asked me for the first time in a long time if my new diet is helping at all.  What could I say?  I explained that in some ways it’s definitely helping – the daily nausea is gone (woo hoo!)  On the other hand, my energy has also improved, and I’m certain that’s at least partly from one of the supplements I’m on.  But could it be from the diet too?

I’d broken my own rule and tried many things at once.  Unlike any time before, these multiple treatments were all recommended by my trusted naturopath, plus they were recommended in books I’d read and by people I’d met online.  Everyone said that this stuff was too important to wait, so it should be done simultaneously.  I believe they’re right, but that doesn’t lessen the mystery.

I’m continuing to spend a lot of time and effort following this new diet, because I’m sure that even if it’s not having an immediate effect, it will help in the long term.  As for the many, many supplements, I’ll continue those for now.  Something is working, and since I can’t be sure what it is, I don’t want to eliminate anything.  My naturopath’s plan is to remove me from all of them over time, and to even lessen the dietary restrictions, so I’m hopeful that one day it won’t matter at all what’s working.  Still, I’m curious: which treatment might be helping me?  And could one of them be slowing down my recovery?

2 Comments | Decisions, Expectations, Frustration, Insensitive, Medication, Rants, Symptoms, Unpredictable | Permalink
Posted by chronicrants

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