I received my approval today but there is a catch. According to their rules they have set my effective date as of 3/31/2008 but I have been receiving disability payments from insurance since June 22, 2006. Where this throws a monkey wrench into the works is with health insurance.

I will not be eligible for Medicare until Sept 2010 and I am in the process of getting a divorce. My insurance is through my wife and she wants me off of her policy.

Since I was approved I am not sure I want to appeal this decision since they then will review the entire case once more plus then I will have to pay an attorney and I did the first part on my own.

Any suggestions out there?

Mike

get legal advise as to wether your wife can force you off of her insurance before the divorce is finalized.

Mike,

Have you tried Virginia Medicaid??
http://www.dss.virginia.gov/benefit/me_famis/index.html


I wish you the best.


Abbie

I know that my wife can not force me off of the policy until we either have a legal separation agreement which I will have this week in order to file for divorce.

Unfortunately I make too much money with the insurance disability check to be eligible for Medicaid have been down this route before as well.

Thanks Guys for the suggestions.

Mike

when did you file? how long have you been disabled? effective might mean that that is when your checks would start. also on the medicare stuff it is 23 months or 24 months so it would be april 2010. I know that isn't much but better than september. you can always call ss office to find out how far back they are going.

Congrats Mike...I had my hearing April first the judge did order that my date start in Feb of 06, but I still have not recieved a verdict!

thank you for your reply,

I have been on disability since June of 2006 and LTD since Sept 2006. I applied in late 2007 for SSDI and my check will not start until Oct of 2008. I have talked with SS and I am filing a dispute as to my start date for it makes no sense at all.

Yes I have spent time with them in the past and I make too much money with my disability check to qualify.

Does your wife want you off her insurance ASAP because it is a messy divorce or because she does not want the extra expense ? Could she be pursuaded to keep you on it until the divorce is final , which might take the 2 years, if you paid the difference between single and family coverage ?

Have you asked Medicare if it is the date you were approved for SSDI or the date of your actual disability ? It seems crazy that they would make us wait that long. What if you weren't married or were the one who carried the insurance ? I know private insurance is available for people who are not covered at work, but the coverage is usually minimal and/or deductables is high......both killer issues for those of us with disabilities.

[color="Blue"]No the divorce is not messy at all. The issue is the money that is being taken from her check every 2 weeks. As for paying the difference I have been paying 85% of the total insurance bill since she left which included my coverage as well as our savings plan. He belief is that she will have more money to live on with me off of her coverage policy which I believe to be a false assumption on her part. Because currently the deductions are done pre tax which made her check so low that she paid little or no federal income tax. Now her tax with holding will go up and she will lose money. She does not believe me she thinks I am trying to manipulate her.

Unfortunately the Medicare requirements are 2 years from the time that SS determines you to be disabled. To me the government believes that we all have access and the ability to have health insurance and in cases like this that I will be able to go on Cobra for 18 months and then get it extended to 24 months until the Medicare starts up. As for private insurance I can get it and I do so with whatever deductables I want but the cost is so prohibitive that most people can not do it even if they are not a high risk like I am because of my cancer, heart failure and lastly MS.