There are at least a couple of reasons why Social Security makes it so hard for MS patients to get approved. First, sometimes MS goes into remission. Social Security's attitude is "Well, you're pretty sick now but you may be a lot better soon and then you'll be able to work." Maybe the MS will go into remission or maybe not but why deny a claim based upon mere speculation about what may happen in the future? Also, maybe the patient will go into remission but have a new exacerbation a few weeks or months later. How are you going to hold down a job if you're in and out of work all the time? Second, probably the most common symptom of MS is severe fatigue. Social Security likes things that can be measured. You can't measure fatigue. Social Security solves this problem by ignoring fatigue. However, whether or not you can measure it, fatigue is a very real problem for most people with MS and prevents work for many. Nobody denies that. Social Security doesn't deny that. They just ignore it.
1 comment:
I found that they "include" fatigue and exhaustion as a symptom, but not a disability in itself, it does help minimally if it's a common symptom, they will pile it onto the others, but in general, you are right. They ignore it unless it can significantly be "proven" by other medical data of an affliction someone is forced to live with, but very minutely does it affect the claim itself. They put it there because they have to, it seems.
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