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jlf1961 -> RE: Welfare scrounging - about as low as it gets (12/13/2012 9:25:11 PM)
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Heretic, actually if you are on Social Security Disability you get medicare, if you are on Social Security Supplemental Income, then you get medicaid. They are two different programs, and IMO SSI is more often abused than SSDI.
SSI usually starts when a child is declared disabled.
Okay, all well and good, a family with a disabled child needs additional assistance.
However, since the programs inception, the allowed disabilities have expanded to include ADD/HD and other learning disabilities. Now, I am an adult with ADD/HD, so I probably had it as a child. Things were different when I was in school, for one thing, the student to teacher ratio was smaller, so there was more one on one instruction. Maybe I was lucky, because I was blessed with a series of creative teachers that found ways to keep my attention on what was being taught and the work that needed to be done. So, even though I probably had the problem as a child, I learned by luck how to deal with it, learn in spite of it, and come graduate high school as a hybrid jock/brain.
My point is that other than medications (which I think are used more often than is probably needed, either that or just about every child born since 1975 is ADD/HD) there are ways to get a child with the problem to learn, and to do it effectively.
Now it is a disability, one that can be a social security check for life. See the problem?
I have a nephew who, due to lack of good parenting, is of the opinion that because he has ADD/HD he is entitled to a government check for the rest of his life. He has no idea of what personal responsibility is, what it means to consider others, and all in all has a bad attitude. I allowed him to live with me twice, only because my sister (not his mother) talked me into letting him come back. When I threw him out the last time, he owed us just over a thousand dollars, the rent he had not paid, and also a bill for repairs to dry wall where he put his fist through it.
Unfortunately, I have seen a lot of young people with the same attitude, collecting social security they never contributed to and the only reason they cannot work is the simple fact that they do not want to.
Dont get me wrong, kids with physical impairments, mental disorders that affect cognitive skills, are blind, deaf or mute need the program until they learn the necessary skills to lead a productive life, IF THEY CAN, or if they cannot, they need the program to pay for their care.
But I am sick and tired of a child getting a life time of ssi because some doctor or teacher told his parents he/she has ADD/HD, needs to be medicated, and will not be able to function satisfactorily in a class room environment simply because the teacher is already overworked and is unable to cope with a challenge.
The reason these kids do not or cannot learn is not because of the problem, but because the education system in this country is not geared for "problem" students. There is no school district I know of that has provisions for kids with the problem.
Oh, one more thing, ADD/HD is the most misdiagnosed malady in children today. Most of the medications have severe side effects, and some are, IMO, down right dangerous.
My son was diagnosed with ADD/HD before I gained custody of him. When I got custody of him, he was always complaining of headaches. I took him to a doctor and told him what his diagnosis was.
The doctor took him off Ritalin, made an appointment with a child psychologist for another evaluation, which found he was not ADD/HD at all, he had PTSD from being in an abusive environment. The medication was changed, and the first year he was in my custody he was making A'a and B's, and seeing a counselor to deal with his experiences.
I was told that the diagnosis was made because it was easy to label and required no further investigation.
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