Other Side of Disability

The challenges of four major medical conditions and several mild ones face me every day, and I have benefited from the services of health-care providers — help for which I am deeply grateful. I have worked hard to get where I am, in less pain and managing much better. I have much faith, thanks to providers, my loving family and friends and to my deepening spirituality. That I am able to be an excellent grandpa is such a blessing. I wake up happy most every morning, in pain, yes, yet determined and upbeat.

I’m grateful for my disability insurance, for which I paid premiums for the 35 years I worked. Social Security Disability Insurance, while not providing the benefits of expensive plans, does, with Medicare, help cover my basic needs. Some are finding it easy to criticize the SSDI program, quite inaccurately claiming it is easy to qualify, and saying that the many qualifying are faking symptoms and are lazy takers of taxpayer revenues. I once had a not-very-supportive attitude toward the disabled, until I became disabled myself. Anyone having such an attitude should try volunteering to help their disabled neighbors.