Like it or not, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has and will change the way health insurance and healthcare will be delivered throughout the United States. Some changes are already evident: children and chronically ill adults can no longer be denied the opportunity to purchase insurance coverage, and insurance companies are no longer allowed to kick people with expensive health problems off of their insurance plans.
Going forward, we anticipate that the ACA will have a marked impact for those seeking Social Security benefits and Supplemental Security income in two primary ways. First, we anticipate that once the ACA increases the availability of routine medical care, more adults with chronic health conditions may be able to stay well enough to remain in the workforce. Right now, many of our clients have chronic but treatable health conditions like diabetes and epilepsy. With proper medical care and access to medication, these diabetic and epileptic adults were often able to work full time, however, after a job loss forced them to forego routine care for any length of time their conditions worsened dramatically (and often irreversibly.) As a result, they became too sick to work and applied for Social Security. Once the ACA is fully implemented, adults with chronic but treatable health conditions will likely be able to keep their health from deteriorating to the point that it becomes disabling.
The second major change we foresee is that that the quality of claimant’s cases will improve. Social security claims are proven through objective medical evidence. At present, many claimants have sporadic or non-existent health insurance coverage; even the most experienced attorneys have a difficult time proving cases through piecemeal emergency room records and claimant testimony alone. One of the most sweeping changes introduced by the ACA is the expansion of Medicaid coverage in the individual states – this means that more poor adults and children now have access to routine medical care and an opportunity to establish the medical records necessary to prove their disability case.
In sum, we anticipate that the number of people seeking disability will drop, but that the cases that remain will be easier to prove through objective medical evidence.
