Disabled and Waiting for Medicare

by Patricia Barry, AARP Bulletin, Updated November 2013 | Comments: 0

Q. I’m 55 and filing for Social Security disability benefits. I’m told I have to be on disability for two years before getting Medicare. What are disabled people supposed to do without health insurance for two years when we are in desperate need of coverage?

A. It’s true that most people* under age 65 who qualify for Social Security disability must wait 24 months before becoming eligible for Medicare. Consumer advocates, including AARP, have long opposed this two-year delay. A proposal to abolish it was originally included in the health care reform legislation of 2010 but did not make it into the final law.

Even so, the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare), did change things. It gives people access to health insurance — without past or present health problems being taken into account — to all U.S. citizens and legal residents (green card holders) who don’t have insurance from an employer. For the first time, people with disabilities (who by definition have at least one pre-existing medical condition) have guaranteed access to health coverage while they wait 24 months for Medicare to kick in.

Patricia Barry

An authority on Medicare and Prescription Part B, she is the writer of Ask Ms. Medicare and author of 'Medicare for Dummies'.

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If you enroll in one of these plans, you can cancel it as soon as you become eligible for Medicare — which usually happens during the 24th month after you were approved for Social Security disability benefits. Under the law, people with Medicare are regarded as fully insured and not required to buy extra insurance.

* Although most people must wait two years for Medicare after qualifying for Social Security disability benefits, there are exceptions. People with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — better known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — and those with permanent kidney failure can get Medicare coverage without a wait after diagnosis.