Yesterday over lunch we listened to a webinar by the National Organization of Social Security Claims Representatives on the status of bills in congress and proposed rule changes. There were large draconian changes in the hopper under the prior administration that will now never see the light of day. They were planning to eliminate reference to a person’s age, education, and work history in making disability decisions. In application Social Security could argue a 57-year-old roofer with a 9th-grade education, who has always done manual labor and has now broken his back can find a job writing code for computers.
We would see our client’s supporting the prior administration and struggle to believe us when we’d explain the changes that occurred over the past four years. They understood the impact by the time we got to a hearing. The good news is President Elect Biden’s team has already told us these changes are DOA and headed for the dustbin of history where they belong!
Some other changes that COULD be happening include eliminating the 24 month wait period for medicare. Currently when an individual is found disabled, under Social Security Disability Insurance, they have to wait 24 months from the first paid date to qualify for medicare. The biggest disservice is those whose illness are on the compassionate allowance list. These are illnesses that will result in death in 12 months. They will more than likely die before they are able to even qualify for medicare.
