Page not found – Hoglund Law Offices

Q & A with 20+ year Social Security Disability Attorney Andrew Kinney

Q: What does it really mean to be approved for Social Security Disability benefits?

A: The media and some political leadership would have us believe that people are clamoring to live off government benefits. While there are freeloaders in all sectors (including the two above-mentioned groups), I want to offer you a more accurate portrait from someone who has sat with thousands of disabled people.

Almost all the people our law offices has represented for Social Security benefits (upwards of 50,000 at last count) would rather work. For many, applying for benefits is a failure. A failure to themselves, their families, and a failure in life. To even apply for benefits can a miserable recognition that everything they hoped for and dreamed to do is gone. Not such a pretty picture so far, now, is it?

Social Security Disability benefits do not nearly pay as well as working. And Social Security’s failure to hire sufficient numbers of judges has caused clients to lose their homes, families, everything—including dignity. Some tell me they must accept welfare, having vowed to never do so in their “working” lives. Personal philosophy doesn’t do a damn to heal their wounds or pay their bills.

The real way to understand what I have described above is to sit and talk with some of those who are applying. Perhaps sift through a few hundred pages of their medical records. And really listen before coming to conclusions. With any experience, you will recognize that disabled people are not statistics in government publications, they are not props in committee meetings with prepared minutes. These are real people who need benefits for very real reasons despite working very hard with doctors to get better. They aren’t freeloaders.

Go ahead. Call your disabled neighbor, close friend, family member, or (God forbid someday) yourself a freeloader. See how far that gets you. Then, take actual time to understand the people who rely on the disability program. Many, many people are in real need.
Listen to me here. When you truly understand real suffering, you know it doesn’t lie.

Andrew Kinney, Esq., 11/30/15

In March of 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is the highly controversial health care reform law. This Act is said to be one of the signature accomplishments of the President. Since the Act was signed into law, 26 states have filed suit in federal courts around the nation challenging the constitutionality of the Act.

That big-ticket provision of the Act that is being challenged is the “individual mandate” that requires nearly all Americans to purchase a minimum level of health insurance. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear two major questions: 1) whether the “individual mandate” provision is unconstitutional; and 2) whether the entire law must be invalidated due to the centerpiece provision which is the “individual mandate.”

Both advocates and adversaries of the Act have serious concerns regarding the constitutionality of this Act. The federal government reported that last year approximately 45 million Americans were without health insurance. As a result of uninsured Americans, the federal government sites $43 billion in uncompensated medical costs. On the other side of the aisle, arguments have been made that the health care law has not lived up to its promises and actually is creating a substantial burden on small businesses. Opponents of the Act also contend that the Affordable Care Act unconstitutionally reduces individual freedoms.

The Supreme Court will begin to hear oral arguments in late February or March, and a ruling is expected by June. The result undoubtedly will influence the political debates in this presidential election year.

Source:

Bill Mears, Supreme Court takes up challenge to health care reform law, https://articles.cnn.com/2011-11-14/politics/politics_health-care_1_oral-arguments-health-care-reform-law-affordable-care-act?_s=PM:POLITICS (accessed 11/15/2011)

Call Now! 855-780-4357

President Obama’s Health Care Legislation has a date with the Supreme Court

Written by Hoglund Law

Minnesota

Ohio

Wisconsin

Missouri