Will I get Medicare or Medicaid with Social Security?
If you are wondering whether you will get Medicare or Medicaid with Social Security, it all depends on the type of Social Security you receive.
Social Security disability insurance (SSDI) comes with Medicare.
Social Security Supplemental Security Income (SSI) comes with Medicaid.
What’s the difference between Medicare and Medicaid?
The Colorado Bar Association has a great page discussing the differences. Here is a quick summary:
Medicare provides only partial coverage, and requires beneficiaries to pay premiums, deductibles, and co-payments.
Medicaid provides more complete coverage, without significant payments from the beneficiaries.
Click to read more about the differences.
24 month waiting period for Medicare
If you win your claim for Social Security disability insurance (SSDI), you are also eligible to receive Medicare benefits. But, you don’t get Medicaid right away, with some exceptions, you have to be “in pay status” for 24 months before you become eligible for Medicaid.
That means you have to be receiving 24 months of Social Security disability insurance to get Medicare.
Another two years? I just waited two years to get my case approved.
Fortunately, Social Security considers your back benefits when they count the 24 months. So, if Social Security 24 months of back Social Security disability insurance, you …
Gordon Gates on “the 11 Percent ALJ”
Social Security attorney Gordon Gates wrote about a Social Security Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who only approves 11 percent of cases.
In trying to find some insight in to how this ALJ could only approve 11% of cases when most other ALJs approve somewhere between 45-60% of cases, Gordon found the following post from the ALJ on a high profile public website:
Some doctors go overboard on diagnoses and treatment because they sense the “pot of gold” in having a fairly young patient on Medicare for many years to come with a reliable source of payment for constant treatment.
Lawyers and other non-attorney representative can receive fees as a percentage of the back benefits awarded to a claimant. Once a claimant has a legal representative, one can actually track how the alleged impairments become much worse, with new impairments and symptoms added as the case matures.
A judge with some experience can almost recite verbatim the same story we hear from virtually EVERY claimant, suggesting they have received training from the national organization of the claimants attorneys. The government is complicit in this boondoggle, because the Social Security Administration actually publishes lists of symptoms for various impairments in the form of rules for judges to follow. Is it any wonder we hear those lists of symptoms at almost every hearing?
The Judge’s quote is quite lengthy and covers a number of topics. I encourage you to read it in Gordon’s article: The 11 Percent ALJ.
While I can agree with the Judge on several points in the longer quote, I strongly disagree with what the Judge says above.
Let’s set ‘em up and knock ‘em down!
