re: Family in Missouri has been receiving disability checks for 4 generations

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Disability is just another form of unemployment with a pool of doctors all too willing to certify.

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I totally agree.
Somewhat related...I've noticed over the past few years signs at doctors offices near reception desks that go something like "we do not certify disability".

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It's amazing how raw and unsympathetic the portrait can be when it's white folk.

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I thought the same thing. The article stressed this was a rural issue. Yet it's not at all limited to rural areas and has this has also been a problem in the black community for years. It's a problem that cuts across race and geography.

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Disability is just another form of unemployment with a pool of doctors all too willing to certify.

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I don't think you understand how disability works. As a physician I don't determine SS disability. All I do is list conditions, treatments, prognosis and surgeries the patient has undergone. I will many times do a functional capacity evaluation by a certified independent evaluator to determine what category of work the patient may be able to do long term (heavy, moderate, light, sedimentary, etc). I have never once determined a patient is unable to work in any capacity in 10 years of practice.

It's an elected judge/lawyers who determines SS disability. Many times this judge is motivated to keep constituents happy in his district.