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From: Pandora.Nigh@f3.n157.z1.fidonet.org (Pandora Nigh)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: Re: disability
Message-ID: <15883@handicap.news>
Date: 30 May 91 19:37:38 GMT
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Index Number: 15883

  Hi Fred, yeah SS is a real trip, I try and keep up as much as possible
with all of their changes, and let me clue you they change things alot.
What most people don't realize is on somethings they don't have to have
a major law change to change things. Some of the changes that they make
on coverage are the results of interperting the existing laws and from
court precedents. What makes things even a bigger mish mash is that the
states Medicaid systems are different, so that if in one state you can
get something covered under the state level to compliment you Medicare
benefits it doesn't hold true some place else. It's a real mess and head
ache. One of the quickest way I find out on specific adaptable
equiptment is when I cover stuff for my show I always ask how the person
can get help and pay for the device or service. The suppliers know very
well what Medicare will and will not pay for. It is amazing the stuff
they don't cover. An earlier post had asked if SSA paid for speech
prosthesises, my notes on that are at the studio still because I'm still
working on the Prentke Romich shows. So I don't want to make a sure
statement right now or to them, but my memory if it is serving me right
(sometimes it does) tells me that SSA doesn't and they don't even
recognize a voice synthesizer or other type of voice out put device as a
prosthesis, but the State of Ohio under Medicaid does. What makes this
even more confusing is the fact that the State also gets part of it's
medical funding money from the Feds. You would think that there would be
some consistancy because of that.
   You are very lucky that you are a vet. There are some weird gaps in
the SS system. While Social Security gives me a pittance a month for my
son off of my SSA they don't cover him under medical. Because I received
SSA and when I was receiving SSI before I made $5 to much for him to be
covered under Aid to dependent children and thus covered under Medicaid.
Net result is my son ends up with no medical coverage. For some reason,
while SSA acknowledges to an extent that disabled people can have
children on the other hand they don't acknowledge them. I don't know how
the figured that a person on SSA could afford private policies for
medical coverage on dependents specially when a policy costs more than
what they give you a month to live on.
                                     Pandora

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