November is COPD Awareness Month!

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, is a general term for several lung diseases, mainly chronic bronchitis and emphysema. These diseases are characterized by obstructed airflow through the airways in and out of the lungs. Both cause excessive inflammatory processes that eventually lead to abnormalities in lung structure and limited airflow. Both are progressive conditions that worsen over time.

COPD symptoms include shortness of breath, wheezing, and coughing. COPD also adds to the work of the heart, and can cause pulmonary heart disease. Treatment for COPD can include oxygen therapy, pulmonary rehabilitation, and various medications. The only known successful cure for emphysema is a lung transplant, but very few patients with emphysema are healthy enough to survive the surgery.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a disability listing laying out the requirements for getting automatically approved for disability for various chronic respiratory disorders, including COPD. If you meet the requirements of this listing, you automatically qualify for benefits. If your condition isn’t severe enough to meet the requirements of the official listing, you may still be able to prove that your COPD reduces your capacity to breathe and exert yourself so much that you can’t work.

Many people who suffer from COPD have other serious medical problems as well, such as coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, and/or obesity, as well as mental issues such as depression. If you have multiple medical conditions that affect your ability to work, then you will have a better chance of getting benefits.

SSA’s respiratory listings: https://www.ssa.gov/disability/professionals/bluebook/3.00-Respiratory-Adult.htm

Information about COPD: https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness/copd-learn-more-breathe-better/copd-awareness-month

Contact our office today if you or anyone you know would like to learn more about qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits.

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

Social Security Disability for Migraine Sufferers

The Migraine Research Foundation reports that around 18% of women and 6% of men in the United States suffer from migraines. Approximately 90% of these individuals are unable to work during an active migraine and often for hours or even days after an attack. If you are among them, you may be entitled to Social Security disability benefits.

While most sufferers experience a migraine attack about once or twice a month, the Migraine Research Foundation reports that around 14 million Americans are affected by debilitating pain, fatigue, and other symptoms on a daily basis. As the eighth leading cause of disability in the world, according to the World Health Organization, migraines may prevent employment entirely and may erode your social life, your enjoyment of hobbies, and even your ability to care for yourself, you home, your pets, or your children.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) has no set standard disability listing for migraines in their adult listings, but this doesn’t mean you can’t get approved for benefits with chronic migraines. It simply means you’ll need to prove that you’re unable to maintain a full-time job and earn a gainful living due to your limitations.

To determine your eligibility, the SSA will look at your daily limitations, consider the frequency and severity of your headaches (including associated symptoms such as nausea, fatigue, or light and noise sensitivity, etc. which may cause you to miss work), examine your employment options, and review your medical evidence.

Although there is no definitive test to diagnose migraines, the SSA will want to see in your medical records that your doctor has diagnosed you with recurrent migraine headaches. Migraines can often be diagnosed based on the patient’s reporting of their symptoms and the presence of a family history of migraines. In addition, doctors may order additional tests, such as an MRI or CAT scan to rule out other reasons for the headaches.

The SSA will also be looking for things like the following in your medical file:

• doctors’ notes regarding the frequency and severity of your migraines
• results of any tests done to rule out other conditions
• list of medications and other treatments tried, and their outcomes, and
• records from any ER visits or hospitalizations related to your migraines.

The SSA may also ask your doctor(s) to complete a report or questionnaire regarding your medical condition. In some cases, they will also seek input from family members or friends who are around you on a frequent basis. If, after taking all of these factors into account, the SSA finds that you are unable to perform the essential job duties of any job for which you are otherwise qualified, then you will be deemed medically qualified for disability benefits.

Contact our office today if you or anyone you know would like to learn more about qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits.

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®

Social Security Seemed Like a Future Problem – The Virus Changed That

Social Security has always seemed like a future problem, with experts long predicting a benefits squeeze in the decades ahead. But the coronavirus has put tens of millions of Americans out of work, and economists are predicting that the recovery will take years. That means the future is now.

If nothing is done to shore up the program, all benefit checks would need to be cut by roughly one-quarter in perhaps 11 years — or, if the recession is protracted and severe, maybe even sooner.

“We thought we had more than a decade, and now it could be less than a decade,” said Kathleen Romig, a senior policy analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “That makes a big difference both psychologically and in policy terms.”

The pandemic has hastened the cash crunch’s arrival by wiping out jobs and the payroll taxes — Social Security’s dedicated source of revenue — that they provide. Fewer people are paying into the retirement trust fund, and the longer they’re out of work, the deeper the problem becomes. (Even more pressing may be a fix for Social Security’s disability program, which has a trust fund of its own. A report issued by the Congressional Budget Office last month projects that fund could be exhausted in 2026.)

Despite such grim projections, Social Security hasn’t received a lot of attention during the presidential campaign, given everything else going on. But whoever wins next week will have little choice but to stretch out his hand toward the third rail of politics. And both candidates have offered ideas that could significantly shift how Social Security works.

President Trump hasn’t released a proposal, but he has said he wants to eliminate the payroll tax — Social Security’s lifeblood — as an expansion of the temporary holiday enacted by executive action over the summer. (Few companies have stopped collecting the tax, which would have to be repaid in 2021.)

Policy experts are highly skeptical that the payroll tax could be eliminated; it would require congressional action and be politically difficult. But if it happened, Social Security would have to compete for funding in a way it hasn’t before.

Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, has released a proposal that’s more moderate than many offered by his party’s progressive wing. But it would nonetheless make fundamental changes.

Just about every American has something at stake, or someone close who does: Roughly 178 million workers contribute to the program, and, this year, an estimated 45.8 million retirees will receive nearly $70 billion in benefits — the average monthly check is about $1,500 per month, according to the Social Security Administration.

Full article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/28/your-money/social-security-biden-trump.html

Contact our office today if you or anyone you know would like to learn more about qualifying for Social Security Disability benefits.

By: Joyce Trudeau of Premier Disability Services, LLC®