Rural communities have strongest reliance on disability benefits

[lovedforaday]

WARSAW, Mo. -- Around this rural county seat 100 miles southeast of Kansas City, 1 out of every 8 people of working age is home collecting disability checks from the Social Security Administration.

That compares to about 1 in 20 for the Kansas City area - which may sound low, but it’s climbing here, too.Everywhere, Americans below retirement age

Comments

[lady_leia_solo]

I don't know how to feel about this article. I'm on disability for a mood disorder. Some of the time I feel like I could possibly work, but other times it's not so good. I think there are some people who are messing with the system though.

[kaowolfie]

I'd be willing to bet it has a lot to do with it. Manual labor just... destroys your body.

[valarltd]

I unload my own trailer. In the last 4 years, I have developed osteoarthritis in every major joint. Getting my weight down has helped with pain issues, but I feel the weather changes.

[kaowolfie]

My father-in-law is a long haul trucker and we're very glad he's been lucky enough to find a company where he *doesn't* have to unload his trailer, since he's got the same osteoarthritis you do from years of doing it himself. :/ People just don't think about how bad stuff like that is, especially when you don't get health insurance.

[kaowolfie]

Could we please have an article that actually analyzes why people end up on disability at younger ages, especially in rural areas, without accusing this person or that person of being undeserving? Or just an article on SSDI at all that doesn't involve proclamations of "so-and-so doesn't deserve their benefits because they aren't as sick as I am."

Because seriously... a mood disorder can absolutely prevent you from getting hired as much as a physical disability can. Chronic pain and migraines can absolutely keep you from being able to find a job you can reliably do. Just because it doesn't show up on a fucking MRI or blood test or genetic screening, that doesn't mean a condition isn't REAL.

[lovedforaday]

I agree.

She attributed the region’s high reliance on disability benefits to factors linked to poor general health: Poverty, low graduation rates, geographic isolation and higher than normal levels of drug and alcohol abuse.

I want more articles that focus on the above issues instead of understandably disgruntled folks who've been denied SSI/DI while other people with seemingly invisible disabilities haven't.

[lovedforaday]

For most people, yes. I think for a small handful of folks, being able to get through high school and college might have helped. But I'm probably wrong.

[romp]

Bottom line, rural poverty is horrible. There's greater isolation and less access to services. I'm so sorry for the people who move to a rural location because of the lower cost of living and are then stuck.

[tabaqui]

I don't consider where we live 'rural' (i'm in Missouri) but it's a forty-minute drive to the nearest hospital on a stretch of highway that is sucktastic in bad weather. And once you get off I-44, the greater percentage of Missouri state highways and roads are poorly maintained, hilly, curvy, and meandering. Forget traveling on bout 2/3rds of them in icy or snowy weather.

A lot of the disability issues would be 'fixable' if people had reliable and affordable (or free) preventative care. Your back gets so bad you can't stand for ten minutes when you've been forced to work for years with an increasingly messed-up spine that you never got checked out because you couldn't afford the doctor visits, or the follow up care.

[kaowolfie]

Missouri: You know things are bad when the Dept. of Mental Health starts looking flush compared to the Dept. of Transportation.