[Ernestine]

Well it's probably really stupid to make my board debut in the middle of a heated thread but then - why try to be something I'm not, eh?

Marichiko, although my definition of the American Dream (nod to topic) is closer to Lookout's than yours, I feel your frustration and add my two cents accordingly. I have someone in my life who was on Ohio SSDI for several years -$550/month plus medicare/medicaid. It is not a government handout but insurance that we all pay into when we are working and healthy. There should be no more stigma attached to collecting on social security disability insurance than there is for submitting a claim against car insurance. He is now working part-time at WalMart for 6.75/hour so the SSDI checks have stopped but he still gets the medicare/medicaid. It's a good thing he does because his monthly cost for medication is $314. He has schizophrenia and couldn't possibly work without the medication so it's almost a Catch22 situation.

I don't want to derail this thread with too much talk about socialized medicine but the idea has been put forth here that people wouldn't need disability insurance or medicare if they lived careful, seat belted, apple eating lives. That simply isn't true. The number one reason for government funded SSDI is schizophrenia, a disease that strikes young people without reason or known cause. I think the number of people collecting it because they led reckless lives are a very small percentage.