Everyone wants to get the most out of their retirement benefits -- not to mention the best medical coverage and prescription drug benefits! Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions clearly explains what the different benefits are, and shows you how to claim what you've earned, including: Social Security retirement and disability benefits Social Security dependents and survivor benefits Supplemental Security Income federal, state and local government pensions Medicare and Medicaid Medigap managed care plans veterans benefits prescription drug coverage Completely updated to provide the latest information and changes in benefits, this plain-English book is a must-have for anyone who is retired or about to be.

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Introduction Social Security is the general term that describes a number of related programs -- retirement, disability, dependents, and survivors benefits. These programs operate together to provide workers and their families with some monthly income when their normal flow of income shrinks because of the retirement, disability, or death of the person who earned that income. The Social Security system was initially intended to provide financial security for older Americans. It was meant to help compensate for limited job opportunities available to older people in our society. And it was intended to help bridge the financial gaps created by the disappearance of the multigenerational family household -- a break-up caused in large measure by the need for American workers to move around the country to find decent employment. Unfortunately, this goal of providing financial security is today increasingly remote. The combination of rapidly rising living costs, stagnation of benefit amounts, and penalties for older people who continue to work has made the amount of support offered by Social Security less adequate with each passing year. This shrinking of the Social Security safety net makes it that much more important that you get the maximum benefits to which you are entitled. This chapter explains how Social Security programs operate in general. It is helpful to know how the whole system works before determining whether you qualify for a particular benefit program and how much your benefits will be. Once you understand the basic premises of Social Security, you will be better equipped to get the fullest benefits possible from all Social Security programs for which you might qualify. (See Chapters 2, 3, and 5.) A. History of Social Security Public images of our society generally render invisible many millions of economically hard-pressed older Americans. The older person with little income and assets is left out of the standard media pictures of two-car, two-kid suburbanites and of wealthy retired couples in gated luxury communities. Modern Western capitalism produces expendable workers. And the most vulnerable, such as people older than 65, are the most easily expended. In the most advanced of modern industrial nations, the United States, the position of expendable workers is the worst. The richest 1% of U.S. households controls about 40% of the nation's wealth, and the poorest 20% of the population earns only about 5% of total after-tax income. These figures for the distribution of wealth are twice as large as those of Great Britain, a society commonly thought to have a wide divide separating rich and poor. During periods of extreme economic retrenching, the number of people cast off by the economy spills over the normal barriers of invisibility. And with so many people during these crises sharing their complaints about economic injustice, it is sometimes difficult to keep them all under control. One such period of extreme economic dislocation was the Depression of the 1930s. Many millions of people were displaced -- not only from job, home, and family, but from any hope for a place in the economy. 1. The Beginning of Social Security Faced with this crisis and with the possibility of massive social upheaval, Franklin Roosevelt and Congress decided to act. Roosevelt pushed through a number of programs of national financial assistance -- one of which was a system of retirement benefits called Social Security, enacted into law in 1935. When benefits began, Social Security retirement cushioned slightly the crushing effects of the Depression. But retirement......more

 

Introduction 1. Social Security: The Basics 2. Social Security Retirement Benefits 3. Social Security Disability Benefits 4. Social Security Dependents Benefits 5. Social Security Survivors Benefits 6. Supplemental Security Income 7. Applying for Benefits 8. Appealing a Social Security Decision 9. Federal Civil Service Retirement Benefits 10. Veterans Benefits 11. Medicare 12. Medicare Procedures: Enrollment, Claims, and Appeals 13. Medigap Insurance 14. Medicare Managed Care Plans 15. Medicaid and State Supplements to Medicare Index

Anyone who can write a readable guide to Medicare should get a medal.... Why can't the system be as straightforward as this book?

 

A handy reference … [this] publisher’s credentials in self-help law are impeccable.

 

A guidebook through the maze of Social Security and Medicare options.

 

Joseph Matthews has been an attorney since 1971, and from 1975 to 1977 he taught at the law school of the University of California, Berkeley. He has for many years been involved in matters relating to seniors, and is the author of Social Security, Medicare & Pensions and Beat the Nursing Home Trap, as well as How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim.

Products by Joseph L. Matthews, Attorney:

How to Win Your Personal Injury Claim

The Lawsuit Survival Guide: A Client's Companion to Litigation

Long-Term Care Insurance: Do You Need It?

Long-Term Care: How to Plan & Pay for It

Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement & Medical Benefits

 

Social Security, Medicare & Government Pensions: Get the Most Out of Your Retirement & Medical Benefits by Joseph L. Matthews
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