Dr Leap describes his experience with the new generation of disabled Americans:
All too often, my disabled patients complaints are as follows: ‘I hurt my back fishing. I hurt my leg on my four-wheeler, I fell off my horse, I fell off the roof, I got in a fight, I fell down when I was drunk at a party.’
Seems to me, if you can fish in a river, ride a four-wheeler, ride a horse, climb on a roof, get in a fight or drink heavily at a party, odds are you might just be able to hold down a job. Call me a hateful conservative, but that’s how I see it.
I had a young single female with three young kids once present to the hospital with "abdominal pain". I asked her what she did for a living. She said she was unemployed. I asked her what her source of income was. She said she was on disability. I asked her what her disability was (no outward signs of physical limitations)
"I'm poor and I have kids"I talked with a colleague at Happy's hospital last month about her neighbor "on disability". A woman who's kid says things like "My mom's on disability." A culture of dependence nurtured and encouraged from crib to coffin. A lady that can be found daily bouncing on her trampoline. A lady who won't get married to her boyfriend because she will "lose her disability."
The neighbor lady asked my colleague if she would watch the house as they went on vacation for the week . The colleague turned her in. As a pissed off tax payer she called authorities to let them know her neighbor was ripping us off. Soon enough, the neighbor could be found hobbling around with a knee brace, and the boyfriend was nowhere to be found .
Welcome to America. Where 99 trillion dollars buys your vote and being a mother makes you disabled and jumping around on a trampoline and taking vacations on your tax dollar is considered normal for this new era of disability.
I'm considering applying myself after experiencing muscle aches after a five mile jog. I figure I've got a pretty good chance of cashing in on other peoples money.
15 Outbursts:
Yes, for every fake disability there is a real one -- which means that there is a 50% rate of fraud. I vote that we only give the real ones money.
Anon 10:01 Horse-pucky. With a big dollop of pseudo-superiority.
Just so you know, I may be getting disability in a few months, and I look forward to the vacation I'll be taking once I leave my job.
And is that $99 trillion stat the new in vogue argument for you? You've used it so many times over the past few days, but it's meaningless without any context. Anything amount summed over an infinite time period, regardless of the yearly amount, will result in such a large sum of money.
Oh yeah, and get over yourself. Running 5 miles isn't such a great accomplishment
anon 12:26. There is no where in my post that suggests disabled people shouldn't be able to collect disability. Nor is there anywhere that that is implied.
I do agree with you completely that physicians are to blame for patients that scam the system. Perhaps the system is just set up wrong. Many physicians are just burned out of the process, are simply not smart enough to weed out the scammers or more likely, simply don't care.
No one likes hearing these antecdotes but I'm sure for every bogus disability claim there is a legitimate one. Some of the fault lies in doctors who give into these claims. You're your own flamer.
Remember, a patient can't just "get on disability". It takes at least one, sometimes more physicians certifying under oath that a patient is permanently disabled. Additionally, at least with most insurance carriers, the physician must continue to certify that disability. Sometimes this is done four times a year. So, the rate limiting enzyme in this whole mess is not the freeloaders, but rather the physicians who sign off on these patients. Happy, while I am sure you do have good intentions, your article seems to lump all disabled together in the same pot. As you so frequently point out regarding your clinical practice, you are hired to manage the "whole patient". I am sure you know better than to generalize about medical conditions....i.e. "all patients with diabetes need insulin"...so, you should not generalize about this group of patients as well. While I certainly agree that there are many abusers of this system, I also know that there has to be an MD at the bottom of the disability certification...
End stage. You should be outraged at the people claiming to disabled, robbing from the system put in place to help people like you, who actually need it. Getting mad at me for being mad at healthy con artists makes no sense. I'm on your side.
Perfect post, could not agree more. There are people that only go to work twice a week so they stay on welfare, or have another kid so they still qualify. Unbelievable.
If you can't get disability, you can at least get Percocet #15 from Dr. Bloody Gloves. I gave out #8 for a 2 mm x 5 mm skin tear on a finger! Muscle pain is certainly way worse than that.
You cannot get Social Security Disability simply for being a mother.
And simply because you can ride a horse or fish does not mean you have the ability to work a full time job. Particularly if you have limited skills and the only kinds of jobs you can get involve physical labor or repetitive motion. Surely a doctor ought to know that.
anon 10:02. Let's play a game. This post was about healthy people scamming the system. So lets assume all folks paid in and all healthy folks start collecting what they are do. How long do you think the money will last?
The disability system is so messed up; it often takes years for someone like End Stage to get disability while others mysteriously slide through the system.
For those with a lower level of disability, vocational rehab programs can help many people retrain in new areas rather than go on disability. I have not yet applied for disability even though I can only sit up a few hours a day--I still hope that I can find employment I can do through telecommuting. Unfortunately, the rehab programs are very taxed right now because of the economy.
Who wouldn't want a job rather than $800 a month? (I quit my job to raise my children soon after I started in the workforce; thus I've put too little into the system to qualify for the social security program.)
I'm on disability.....I get $8.00 extra a week. Woohoo. That is to cover medicine, transport and parking at Dr's or Hospital, having to constantly buy extra clothes, and bed linen because of a leaking balls up operation, extra electricity to do all of the extra washing, and to cover any other extra stuff one needs for a balls up operation:)
I'm not sure what these people are partying up on, but I would much prefer to be earning my own living and feeling like a valued member of society with a purpose.
I am a 41 year old former physician dying of heart failure. I get disability. I paid into the system for quite a few years and now I am taking that money back out to support my family. Happy, for your sake, I hope you never get sick. Better yet, I am glad you are not my physician.
" I figure I've got a pretty good chance of cashing in on other peoples money."
Also, Social Security Disability is the claimants money, unless it's SSI. You get benefits based on what YOU paid in.
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