Social Security

Ugh! That is the best and nicest thing I can say right now about Social Security and one of the few words I can get out between my tears.

It has been awhile since I wrote about SS so most of you have probably assumed that this had been resolved. I guess our government has been too concerned with spending our hard earned tax dollars on Iraq, Lebannon and illegal aliens to care about taking care of their own tax-paying citizens here at home.

Ugh!

So what is going on? I wish that I knew. My claim has been pending since January of this year. At least, that is when I filed it. The first analyst claims that she did not receive it until Feb. 7 and therefore, that is the listed date of the claim (although I have paperwork which states otherwise). The first step taken was to request all of my medical records from Kaiser. That took over 1 month and they were finally all received about Mar 17th (after calls from me to the various Kaiser Medical Secretaries who are famous for their arrogance and unwillingness to help or budge from their seats to make so much as a copy).

I repeatedly called SS and was told that SS had all they needed to make a decision and that they were just behind and slow in approving claims. I explained numerous times that my COBRA was expiring the end of July and I could only renew it with an approval letter from SS. Why is that important? I have checked the individual health plans and my co-pay increases dramatically meaning that it is unlikely I will be able to afford to continue my treatments until they are finished. You can imagine the angst and tears I have shed over that. What kind of country is it that we live in where a tax-paying (and I have always paid into SS, involuntarily, at the maximum) person with a life threatening disease can not even get the disability which the program was established for to get the treatment she requires?

Not to mention that I also told SS that my disability expired in May and disability sent a recommedation that I be approved for long term (SS) disability. SS's response to that? "So now the State thinks they can tell us what to do?" Ugh!

The frustration!

After many calls to my SS analyst, she at last told me the day before my surgery (June 19th), after she sat on my case for 4 months, that my files were now outdated and they had to go back to Kaiser and get my latest files in order to make a decision. I repeated to her again the urgency of my case and she actually laughed and said there is no way it would be decided by July 31.

After my surgery, when I should have been calmly relaxing and recovering, I was instead on the phone again with SS regarding my claim. On July 6, I was told that my rep was "on an extended leave" and that my case was being assigned to another rep. I spoke with the Supervisor who kindly explained that she was a breast cancer survivor herself and that she would assign my case to a rep that could give it immediate attention so that I wouldn't lose any more time.

In the meantime, I wrote a letter to my Senators - Senator Feinstein and Senator Boxer. One week later, I received a call from Senator Feinstein's office. They were going to open a Congressional Inquiry into my case and hope to get it resolved sooner.

Today (2 weeks after my case was to be reassigned), I spoke with my new rep. I made the cal. She did not call me. She told me that she was on vacation when she received my case and had just gotten back so she had not worked on it. I explained to her again the urgency and she just said that she hadn't sat on it for 5 months and had only just gotten it so it had not been "pending" with her. In other words, no sense of urgency, no rush. She explained that I needed to be disabled for more than 1 year in order to qualify. I explained that, as of March, when they had all of my records, I was disabled for over one year so why could I not receive approval already. She said that she didn't have time to explain the details of qualification to me but that I needed my files updated to qualify and that I now have to get a letter from my doctor confirming that the treatments and recent surgery have left me fatigued and debilitated so that I can not perform my usual work. Ugh!

I had vascular (micro-surgery) in which a big piece of my body was removed and then the blood vessels sewn into another part of my body. I was in the hospital for four days just so that they could continue to use the doppler on the reconstruction in order to make sure the blood was flowing through the newly sewn vessels. I could not drive or even cook for myself. I could barely walk. Most days were spent sleeping and I am stil very tired and restricted in my activities and she needs a letter from my doctor confirming that? It has only been 4 weeks and recovery (to a point of returning to normal activities - albeit slowly) is 6 weeks and then you only re-enter your life at a slow rate.

Not to mention that I am still taking biological (similar to chemo) treatments requiring a hospital visit and infusion every 3 weeks. And my left arm is still so sore and weak from the many infusions and blood tests it was submitted to that I can only type and work on the computer for limited periods of time (my job requires heavy computer use). I still suffer from fatigue and never know if a day will be "good" or "bad". The four surgeries, chemo and radiation I have gone through in the past 12 months have left my mind in a questionable state. Sometimes it seems to be fine and other times I can't even remember my own name. I walk around the house wondering why I am in a certain room with no recollection of how I got there. I will be in the middle of a conversation and suddenly my brain freezes up. I forget what I was talking about and cannot continue the conversation. All of this is not good for trying to function in a high level finance position. The oncologist says that these symptoms can last for a year or longer and then follows up with "but you should be able to work. Any employer that is not understanding of what you have been through is heartless". I am not sure what world he lives in but I do not currently have a job and it is hard enough to find a new one without having to explain that I need a day off every three weeks and that sometimes I may not be able to put in a full day due to fatigue, etc.

Anyway, back to Social Security. So now they have sent me a function report to fill out. I already filled this out once back in February but now they are telling me that I need a new one. What they really need they say is the signed form from my oncologist. They were supposed to fax it to me today so that I could take it over to my doctor and hope to get him to sign it so that I could fax it back and "maybe" get some action on my case by July 31. I never received the fax today and tomorrow is Friday meaning that I now have to wait the weekend until Monday which will already be the 24th. The new analyst told me that she has been with SS since 1981 and that there were a number of things done incorrectly on my case and that the previous analyst was "very slow". She says that she would have done things differently but couldn't now because of what had been done by the other analyst and that she really needs the letter from my doctor (of which I have not received the form yet). I feel as if I am caught in this vicious whirlpool that I can't get out of. Why is this all being done now after 5 1/2 months of them sitting on my claim and when I need it so badly? She told me that I should have applied in 2005 when I was first diagnosed because it takes a long time for SS to decide these claims (18 months?) Why does it take so long? And why do we as citizens have to go through this stress and agony at a time when we should be focusing on our health?

If you ask me (and it is my blog so I will tell you anyway), there is something dreadfully wrong with this system and it disgusts me to see our tax dollars wasted on such inefficiency. Even worse is that the inefficiencies are jeopardizing my health and well-being. I am not asking for a free handout here - only what is due to me as a taxpayer who is currently disabled and in need of a little help until I can get back on my feet again (which I hope will be sooner rather than later).

Well, that is my story. I hope that this all gets resolved soon so that I can relax and pay my bills and finish my treatments. And most of all so that I can find my happy self again. :)