In the twelve-month stretch from October 2022 through September 2023, 30,000 people died while waiting for federal disability determinations, according to Social Security Commissioner Martin O’Malley. Martha asked Harris what she would do as president for people, like herself, who are waiting for disability decisions while in desperate need of health insurance.
Delays in those decisions, driven in part by understaffing and a Covid-related rise in disability rates, have driven the typical wait time from four months in 2019 to seven months today, often coupled with the need to appeal an initial rejection, which can take years. The processing times represent a mounting crisis for the more than 1 million Americans who apply for disability in a given year.
Until Democrats fall out of love with means testing I don’t see this changing quickly or at all, unfortunately. But try getting people to accept that means testing almost always costs more than just making the programs open with few/no strings attached and watch the meltdowns start.
Republicans aren’t getting rid of means testing and Democratic leadership for the most part doesn’t want to. Also, means testing for welfare was a huge part of Democratic campaigning in the 90s and has been embraced within the party since then.
Any evidence that means testing is popular among the Democratic party these days? The '90s is a long time ago now.
