#the welfare system has so many fucking hoops people have to jump through

[puppiedogs]

i called the ssa office to ask something and in the pre-recorded message they say, like it’s not fucking Insane, “if you’re calling with regards to a disability claim, due to a staffing shortage, current processing times for disability claims are between 250 and 300 days, after which it will take three to four weeks for you to receive your decision by mail” as though that’s just something that happens whoopsie sorry about that like die actually. how do these people sleep at night

[sittingoverheredreaming]

Whenever a social program comes up— be it universal healthcare, or free college, or extant systems like welfare and food stamps— abuse of the system always comes up as a prime concern.

But what is this abuse, really? In my time working on Medicare appeals, I’ve seen my fair share of cases that could be taken as trying to take more than the system should give. Let me share the most outrageous with you.

A patient asked their Medicare Advantage plan to cover the construction of a swimming pool in their backyard.

Yes, a swimming pool. The documents did not specify if it was in ground, but I imagine it might have been. The patient’s doctor had recommended daily water exercises to help them maintain strength and balance as they fought an illness that made other exercises dangerous.

Surely, building a pool on tax-payer dollars (or partially, as it was an advantage plan and therefore still partially private) is an ridiculous response to what the doctor said, right? Surely, this doctor meant for this person to join a health club.

Well, let’s look at that.

Issue #1: Medicare itself does not cover gym memberships or fitness benefits of any kind. Advange plans sometimes do, with stipulations. Coverage often means either a certain dollar amount— one I see often is $150 a year— or at certain facilities. Many of these facilities offer classes specifically for Medicare beneficiaries, but do not have pools.

But some do have pools! Let’s say this plan fully covers a facility with a pool, and move on.

Issue #2: Medicare also does not cover routine transportation. Again, advantage plans can, but often there are very rigid limitations on mileage and frequency. A very, very good plan might offer 30 one-way trips a year to doctors offices and other covered locations. They will not, to my understanding, take someone to a gym unless it is for physical therapy.

Even if this patient got a licensed physical therapist to work them through their water exercises (which would be an additional cost to them), there is no way they would be able to have daily transportation for even a month.

Can they drive? Do they have someone who could take them every day to a fitness facility? How far away is it? Could they walk? Is it safe for them to walk? Is there public transport? Does it run with reasonable frequency? Is it accessible to someone with any mobility issues?

The answer for a lot of people facing these sort of issues is no to all of the above.

I hope it’s starting to look less ridiculous. But I have one more.’

Issue #3: This person is a goddamn human asking for something they’ll use daily to be a part of their home. Is that his person is a human who has lived their human life and then asked for other humans to help them when they needed it so that maybe instead of jumping through infinite hoops for their health, they could do what they need in the comfort of their own home.

This is, truly, an extreme case, fallling outside of what we think of as medical or even disability-related. But I see the same arguments to deny people wheelchairs. Oh, they don’t really need it because there are these alternatives, they can get around their house so they’re fine, they’re requesting a wheelchair so they can go down the street to the grocery store safely, that’s not something that should be covered. We allow people in need so little dignity. We treat them with suspicion, with distaste, waiting for the moment we can say AHA! I knew you were faking! I knew you were lazy! I knew we should never, ever help anyone, less they trick us like you!

But you know what? It doesn’t matter if there’s a handful of assholes who take advantage. Because more often, whoever is “cheating” is also in need. Maybe there’s not a way to get help that’s made for their situation. Or maybe they’re exactly who we claim something is for, but they don’t fit a stereotype.

When people ask for swimming pools, you have to look at why they need them.

And either you have to address all the barriers they face, or you have to build the fucking swimming pool.

(We didn’t, by the way. Because side note, no system is unregulated. You’d have a hell of a time scamming Medicare to cover something outside of its policy. Unless you’re a provider. But there’s never outcry about that, is there?)

[soilrockslove]

i’m having a hard time telling if what i’m about to say is off topic or not (especially since you all seem to be having a conversation about capitalism vs. communism elsewhere)  and you seem to be getting dogpiled a bit - so if you want feel free to tell me to step off and i’ll make my own post to complain on.

but anyway

i do like this post, and honestly that sounds like a good experience and i think a good starting point for talking about how aid works, and could work if done better.

but it’s also making me have thoughts and putting up red flags.  in the sense that.... churches can be really good places buuut there is this thing called the separation of church and state, and there’s good reasons why it exists, and i’m glad that it exists.

Like this place sounds rad, but like, i’ve lived in arizona for years and utah for a little bit.  and every once in a while when adding more funding for public programs, someone or many someone’s in the legislature will speak up and be like “isn’t that a job for the church”?  and the improvements in funding often didn’t pass.  and it is absolutely related to the Mormon element (and the shitty conserv. catholics, fundamentalists, salvation army, etc. - it can be different in differerent places, heck you can get similar issues with buddhist and hindu organizations in asia)

like, religion serves the world and all, and scattered aid is cool and such.  but once you start doing it in bulk, it gets supported by people paying 10% to the church, a tithe.  which is basically a tax - but the thing is there aren’t even voting rights.  and as fucked up as gerrymandering gets, in democratic and republican systems you at least have the idea that the government should be directly  accountable to their people, which is good!

The catholic church fed basically everyone for several centuries in roman times and the middle ages.  they also had an army and the inquisition.  The egyptian temple structure was involved in redistributing food and paying public workers, and honestly it was so good comparatively, like kind of  a poster child for doing it right, but they also did very much back wars to “restore cosmic balance (maat), and you had to observe egyptian religious customs and take an egyptian name to be considered a full citizen.

The lack of funds for welfare is at least in most places i’ve lived, absolutely connected to the idea that people should seek help from their church or family first.  And the hoops that you’re made to jump through to get welfare are directly linked to a lack of funding, it’s how they (uneccessarily sadistically imo) weed people out - how they check on who should really be “going to their family or church for this help”.

And so you get weird situations like my friend who has wealthy extended family, but who have disinherited her and her kids because of internal family politics, or the people i know who have to go ask for food aid from the same mormon “priest” who they confessed their homosexuality to.

so i guess the tl:dr is that sounds like a great or inspiring place, and inspiration for what aid could look like - but if it’s ever implemented on a large scale i’d much rather it be by a governmental or other organization that i can vote for at least.

The food bank at our local conservative church full of Republicans requires far less demonstration of moral worth than any other method of getting food I've yet encountered.

They don't drug test you, audit you, require a personal interview, expect you to wear a proper uniform, or require you to make a written appeal within 30 days if you believe that they rejected a form incorrectly.

They just have a small amount of food they can give away, and if you're needy you go during open hours and say "Hey I'm having trouble getting enough money for food" and they go, "Okay, here's a bag of food" and the whole process is over.

That's it. That's the whole damn thing.

Whatever else in that you might object to, you can't possibly tell me that this is more based on popularity than getting a job or signing up for welfare, I'm sorry.

[mermaid-reyes]

what are some of the best things about living in Australia? - curious anon

I’m going to answer this as best I can for you, nonnie, but I think I’m so used to living in Australia that I might take some things for granted. I have actually lived in a different country and region of the world for a year, but that year was so full of so many New Things and Big Things that I was too distracted to really compare and contrast the living experience, you know? And of course this is going to be completely subjective, my experience of Australia won’t be the same as any other Australian’s experience of Australia. 

But anyway! Let’s get on with it! I think the best way to approach this is just a hodgepodge list, so I’m gonna dive right in.

1) Australia is where I was born and where I grew up and where (the majority of) my family is, and it’s just HOME, you know?

2) We have really REALLY good universal healthcare. I’ve never known someone to have to go without any type of medical care because they couldn’t afford it or because it was inaccessible in any way.

3) We also have a pretty good education system (and just fyi when I make comparative statements about things like healthcare and education, I’m really just comparing Australia to the USA, I’m not even gonna lie). While university certainly isn’t cheap (or FREE, like in some other amazing countries) it is definitely a whole lot less expensive than in America, and EVERY student who goes to a public university can access government loans to cover fees while studying, loans which you don’t have to start repaying until you are steadily earning a certain level of income within the field you studied in. And you don’t have to jump through hoops to get these loans either, they’re so easily accessible, you just enrol in your classes and when it comes time for payment you just choose “defer payment to HECS”. Some unis don’t even do that, my uni for example just automatically puts your payments on HECS unless you specify that you want to pay outright.

4) Up until now, the welfare system has always been pretty good at supporting the people who depend on it (and once again, this is my opinion based on the limited interactions I’ve had with the welfare system. And I say ‘up until now’ because the current fucking Liberal government is doing its best to screw over the people who have it worst).

5) I’ve always felt pretty safe and secure living in Australia. Again, I acknowledge that this might just be because I live in a “good” suburb in a “good” part of Sydney, but that’s my experience. Also put your hands together for gun control laws!! 👏  👀

6) I live in a pretty fucking gorgeous part of the world, I’m blown away by it every day. And you never have to travel far to experience that natural beauty, even living in a city as big as Sydney.

7) I’m never too far from the water, which I love, because I am a water baby.

8) For the most part, Australia is pretty stable in terms of environment and weather events. We do get a lot of flooding in the north and some pretty horrific bushfires basically all over the place, and the odd tropical cyclone, but apart from that, we’re pretty good? We’re not very prone to earthquakes or tsunamis or tornadoes or blizzards. Which might seem like a weird thing to add to this list but when I was little I really thought tornadoes were going to be a bigger problem than they turned out to be.

9) (Less about living in Australia, and more about just being a proud Aussie) Australian’s are pretty fucking innovative. Like hello, we have given the world Wi-Fi and Goon of Fortune, among many other things. You can thank us later, sweetie. 

10) Chicken salt

11) Open-toed footwear 90% of the year

12) Briefly jumping back to health and safety, being an island nation that shares no land boarders with any other country, we’re in a pretty good position when it comes to the spread of diseases. There’s no way you can enter the country without going through Customs and Quarantine and they are very good at screening for foreign infectious diseases, in humans, animals, and plant matter. Global epidemics rarely reach Australia, and if they do they’re isolated incidents.

13) The Australian fondness for nicknaming EVERYTHING.

14) The animals (a dot point which will probably also feature in my list of worst things about living in Australia).

This is in no way an exhaustive list, and there are definitely going to be things I think of later that are going to make me go ‘gotdamn, I should’ve added that!’ but I’m pretty tired so I’m gonna stop here. I hope this has been helpful and/or entertaining, and that I’ve sated (or hey, maybe stoked) your curiosity about Australia.

I am very aware that I live in one of the most fortunate countries in the world, and I’m thankful for that every single day.