Helping You Get the Social Security Disability Benefits You Need
When you have a medical condition that prevents you from working, it’s obvious you need continued and uninterrupted medical care.
Receiving ongoing medical care can even affect your ability to continue getting Social Security Disability (SSD) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits.
But how are you supposed to pay for expensive health insurance premiums — plus copays and deductibles — when you can’t bring home a paycheck?
The monthly payments you receive from disability benefits probably aren’t enough to cover all your health care costs. What are you supposed to do?
Here’s the answer: Qualifying for disability benefits can also qualify you for Medicare or Medicaid health coverage.
For help understanding your situation, call us today.
How You Qualify for Medicare or Medicaid with Disability Benefits
When you worked, you paid taxes to Social Security to pay for Social Security Disability benefits. You also paid taxes for Medicare and Medicaid.
You’ve earned the right to get help with your health care expenses when medical conditions make it impossible for you to work, and you can’t earn a paycheck. That’s what these programs are for.
• Qualifying for Medicare
Medicare is a government-run health insurance program that generally applies to Americans 65 and older.
But it’s also available to people with qualifying disabilities under age 65.
If you win your Social Security Disability case — regardless of your age — you’ll automatically become eligible for Medicare.
Unfortunately, there is one catch. Before you can start receiving Medicare, you must have your qualifying disability for two years.
At Makris Law Firm, we know how frustrating this is, especially since the process of getting SSD benefits takes so long on its own.
But there’s also good news.
Your start date for the wait to become eligible for Medicare reaches back to the date you first experienced a qualifying disability. So by the time you win SSD benefits, you already will have credit toward the two years.
Take this example: You developed medical problems that forced you from work, and you immediately applied for SSD benefits. Let’s say it took exactly one year for you to win benefits.
That decision means you’ve been eligible for SSD since the date you first applied. Now you only need to wait one more year to qualify for Medicare.
• Qualifying for Medicaid
Medicaid is a government-sponsored health insurance program jointly funded by the federal government and the state where you live. Medicaid is for low-income individuals including:
o Children
o Elderly individuals
o Blind individuals
o Certain people with qualifying disabilities who also receive SSI payments
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) is the disability benefits program run by the Social Security Administration for people with limited work history and financial resources.
In the state of Texas, if you meet both the income and disability requirements for Supplemental Security Income, you will also immediately become eligible for Medicaid.
At the Makris Law Firm, you don’t pay anything to have a conversation with us about which type of disability benefits and which type of health care coverage you could receive.
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Get Help with Health Insurance
As your disability attorneys and your personal advocates, the Makris Law Firm can help you through every step of your journey.
That means, if you have questions about receiving Medicare or Medicaid after winning your disability claim, we definitely want to help. Hablamos Español.