Thread by @dontwantadothis

🧵❗️I am seeing some anger about this, so I'd like to explain some very
important things folks *really* need to know.

Yes, this clip talks about H. working to get LC recognized as a disability under the ADA & working to prevent medical debt from affecting your credit score...

https://twitter.com/atrupar/status/1844564967183319137

2/ (which can then affect your ability to sign a lease, & to get hired if you can work).

1st, just btw, the latter issue is a *way* bigger one for disabled folks who want to return to work or get housed out of shelters than most folks know. As a conservator, I saw it plenty; so

3/ *don't* dismiss it.

2nd (& critically important!), note: the disabled speaker is from Florida. FL is one of 10 Republican-led states (AL, FL, GA, KS, MS, SC, TN, TX, WI & WY) that refused to expand Medicaid when the ACA passed or to take the offered federal funds to do so...

4/ even though that refusal made it hard for their small hospitals to stay open (which hurt all their people). In a blue state, she'd have Medicaid while she waited for SSDI approval (at which point, she'd also get "MSP," a *federal* program that covers the 20% Medicare doesn't).

5/ So, what about Medicaid before SSDI/SSI approval? Well, unlike T (who would do the opposite) B/H have not only diligently pushed the holdout R states toward Medicaid expansion by offering even more financial incentives (for ex., in the 2021 ARP Act), but they've proposed a...

6/ Medicaid-like fed. program for the states refusing ACA expansion of Medicaid, to get the job done from the federal level; it's a "mirror" program to Medicaid that folks would get through the ACA. The dems have been trying to get this legislation passed since 2021 (w/ the 2021

7/ Medicaid Saves Lives Act) to the current 2024 Bridge to Medicaid Act (S.4684). But H. can't sign it into law w/o leg. passage (that's our 3-branch sys of government) & the Rs have been fighting it for this entire past admin.

See, for ex. this from 2022
commonwealthfund.org/blog/2022/expa…

8/ So, as to why this particular woman doesn't have Medicaid: blame FL Gov. DeSantis, not Harris, who wants it done & has been pushing hard for it. And please read the below, if you haven't:

Now, about Social Security Disability:

My 1st interaction w/

commonwealthfund.org/publications/e…

9/ the Social Security Administration was in 1986, & I've been interacting w/ them for most of the almost 40 years since (as a disabled person & as a Conservator of Person for a disabled person), & I know far more than the average person does about this.

Yes, SSDI/SSI approval

10/ *always* takes an enormous amount of time; it very often took years even in the 1980s. And yes, it's worse now - party b/c SSA offices shut down for two yrs (2020-2022); their workforce shrunk dramatically; & their budget dropped by 19% since 2010. (If the Rs had their way,

11/ that would be *far* worse, btw), while our population got older & sicker. But the fact that H. has worked to get Long Covid recognized under the ADA is actually *huge,* b/c of the way the SSA processes claims.

SSA maintains a "blue book" of disabilities, & qualifying for

12/ disability benefits is infinitely easier if the applicant "meets the listing" for one of the conditions included on that list. You can qualify for benefits w/o having a listed condition, but that's a much longer & + complicated process. So the fact that LC is now recognized

13/ as a disability under the Americans w/ Disability Act is a *very* important step in the process of getting the SSA to list it, along w/its functional limitations that make one eligible for benefits.

I strongly suspect that the people I see screaming on SM about the town hall

14/ clip either have no idea how this all works, or they just aren't willing to acknowledge that you don't get to a success (prize) w/o laying the groundwork that creates the *path to get us there.* I've been an advocate for healthcare reform for literally decades, & I promise

15/ you, H. is doing that work; if T. makes it into office, he will undue all of it, & far worse.

Finally a couple of notes: the SSDI/SSI process, like other social safety net programs, is confusing. The woman in the clip may be eligible for expedited payments due to presumptive

16/ disability or to a 1x emerg. payment while she waits. It's unknown whether she applied for or received these funds. Due to her age, she's likely also eligible for SSA retirement benefits, if she had a work history; it's not known what happened there. I've seen people question

17/ why a disabled Florida woman was at a town hall > 2,500 miles away; I don't know, but she'd be eligible for Medicaid there, so hopefully she'll stay, b/c this is a "deep R" state problem.

& w/ regard to Medicaid, note that the current later-pandemic "unwinding" damage (when

18/ 9 R states dumped + folks off the Medicaid rolls than all other states combined), note that the B/H admin had HHS Sec. Becerra send letters to those governors "urging them to [accept the available] federal strategies and flexibilities to help prevent children & their families

19/ from losing coverage due to red tape." (Yet you can lead Rs to water, but you can't make them drink.)

In fact, more ppl got healthcare coverage under the ACA under B than at any time before.

For the love of G* & to expand healthcare access, vote H.

hhs.gov/about/news/202…