Social Security & Medicare

Baron2024

(295 posts) Wed Dec 18, 2024, 06:20 PM Dec 18

I Need Help And Information

I need some help and information from folks familiar with Social Security and Medicare. I have an adult cousin who is on Social Security for very difficult mental health issues/bipolar disorder. He has been on Social Security Disability for a long time as the survivor/disabled child of a Social Security Payor. He has been able to live pretty well on Disability.

So his Father and Mother are both deceased. He gets a pretty good monthly disability check as a Disabled Survivor Child based on his Father's account. Anyway, the family and I are worried about his benefits and medical insurance being cut by the incoming Trump Administration. He also has Medicare which pays for his treatments and his very necessary psychiatric drugs.

I worry about his future as he has no way to survive without Social Security and Medicare. There is no immediate family who can afford to take him in and care for him. So what do you think here. Is my fear of his Social Security being cut real, or is it unlikely? I wouldn't put anything Trump and his gang. Thanks in advance for any responses.

4 replies

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I Need Help And Information (Original Post) Baron2024 Dec 18 OP

Here's an article from MSNBC dated Dec 5: Dennis Donovan Dec 18 #1

i wish I had an answer for you. mommymarine2003 Dec 18 #2

it's just not known at this time what will happen Skittles Dec 18 #3

Family, disability, and survivor benefits are the most vulnerable. Shermann Dec 18 #4

Dennis Donovan

(27,989 posts)

1. Here's an article from MSNBC dated Dec 5:

Reply to Baron2024 (Original post)

Wed Dec 18, 2024, 06:28 PM

Dec 18

MSNBC - With the election over, Republicans are suddenly interested in cutting Social Security

Like clockwork, the party is back to talking about its favorite target.

Dec. 5, 2024, 6:00 AM EST
By Ryan Teague Beckwith, Newsletter Editor

/snip/

The question is what happens next. If history is any guide, any effort would run right into a brick wall of opposition. President George W. Bush after all, proposed privatizing Social Security after he won a second term in 2004. In a press conference shortly after that victory, Bush declared that he had earned "political capital" in the election and intended to spend it. He made it the centerpiece of his State of the Union address and barnstormed the country. And the more he talked, the less popular the idea became. Within a few months, the plan died quietly in Congress. In the 2006 midterms, Democrats flipped both houses of Congress without a single incumbent losing.

Trump wouldn't even start with Bush's level of single-minded focus on the issue, either, as he'll be too busy promoting his other plans to deport millions who are in the country illegally, restructure the federal government by fiat and levy tariffs right and left. With narrow majorities in the House and Senate, just a handful of Republicans could tank any proposal, and Social Security has one of the strongest lobbying and grassroots advocacy efforts in Washington.

/snip

That says, short term, Social Security should be safe.

mommymarine2003

(299 posts)

2. i wish I had an answer for you.

Reply to Baron2024 (Original post)

Wed Dec 18, 2024, 06:32 PM

Dec 18

Our daughter is bi-polar and lives with us along with her two sons. I worry everyday about what will happen to her once we are gone. She has been on 100% disability for 20 years. My daughter left a violent marriage and receives no child support. My husband and I are both retired. We are okay financially but do worry about how to financially help her and the kids as we don't know what medical needs we will have in the future. Medicare does not pay for long-term mental health care, so we have spent over $100,000 in the past couple years to help her. Staying on her meds is a constant worry. I know that she is worried that she will lose her benefits, too. Now I see on the breaking news that the Republicans are going to shut down the Government. Heaven knows what the next four years will be like. We just hope we can live long enough to make it through the Trump years unless he does away with elections. My goodness, I am sounding so pessimistic at the moment. Wish I could have positive information for you.

Skittles

(160,683 posts)

3. it's just not known at this time what will happen

Reply to Baron2024 (Original post)

Wed Dec 18, 2024, 06:32 PM

Dec 18

we can hope for the best but, well, we all know how republicans hate anything that truly helps people

it will take a bit of time for action to take place and hopefully there will be a LOT of pushback when they try to cut benefits

Shermann

(8,747 posts)

4. Family, disability, and survivor benefits are the most vulnerable.

Reply to Baron2024 (Original post)

Wed Dec 18, 2024, 07:11 PM

Dec 18

I'll wager that once you hit 60 your benefits are locked in, but it's a crapshoot otherwise.

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