“I’m Just Sitting Now. Wondering.”: Surviving the Wait for Disability

ABSTRACT

In US states that have foregone Medicaid expansion, a disinvestment in general assistance programs has meant that disability benefits remain one of the few sources of cash assistance ostensibly available to uninsured working poor Americans. Yet among impoverished South Carolinians, economic hardship and ill-health often compound during the long, uncertain waits for a disability determination. Here I explore the peculiar vulnerabilities of working poor disability seekers living in an insurance gap of a state that has foregone Medicaid expansion; individuals that risk the protracted, injurious waiting for a chance at meaningful healthcare.

KEYWORDS:

• U.S. South
• health disparities
• social security disability insurance
• the working poor

Acknowledgments

I am grateful for the kind support and insightful feedback I received from the staff and students of the University of Kentucky’s Appalachian Center. I would also like to thank the anonymous MA reviewers for their valuable comments. This research was approved by the University of Kentucky IRB.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. Throughout the rest of this article, I will refer to Social Security Disability Insurance – a federal insurance program funded by a dedicated payroll tax – as “disability,” because that is what everyone I talked to called it.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded in part by a University of Kentucky Dissertation Enhancement Award, an Eller & Billings Research Award and a James S. Brown Award.

Notes on contributors

Henry Bundy

Henry Bundy is a medical anthropologist and health services researcher at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina. His primary research interests concern how sociocultural factors and economic inequity inform the experience and distribution of health and illness in the American South.