ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Disability can come out of nowhere. Now, so do increased costs.
What You Need To Know
- Many people relying on disability coverage are facing a finacial burden trying to access care
- A local resident is making a documentary and navigating the struggles that come with it
- At the beginning of 2019, Social Security paid an average monthly disability benefit of about $1,234, barely enough to keep them above the 2018 poverty line
According to the Social Security Administration, 1-in-4 people over the age of 20 will become disabled before reaching retirement age. For many, attempting to access the care they need can be financially crippling.
One of those people is Orange County resident Coleman Watson. He spends three hours a day re-learning how to speak and read.
“Most people learn with A, B, C, D but in my mind I learn only sounds,” says Watson.
Back in 2020, he was only 41 when he suffered a stroke that injured 75% of his brain. At the time, he was a successful attorney with his own firm, but he lost all that and is now practicing his speech by reading from the old versions of the Florida bar exam is as close as he gets to a courtroom.
Watson was diagnosed with a speech disorder called Aphasia.
“It feels like you’re on the tip of your tongue to say a certain word, but you can’t remember and you can’t say it with the right sounds,” said Watson. He also has Apraxia, which prevents him from saying the words he wants to say correctly and consistently.
“My life is totally different now than it was before,” said Watson.
Watson assumed since his doctor declared him disabled and he had insurance, it would be no problem getting the help he needed to get his life back on track. But that wasn’t the case as he capped his speech therapy coverage in just a month and was denied disability, leaving him to pay $900 dollars an hour for therapy.
“I had to file bankruptcy because there was no way to pay all the medical bills that I needed,” said Watson. Luckily for him, his parents paid for him to go to a private speech therapy school, but he knows many are not that lucky.
“The cost of that was a little more than $100,000 dollars just to talk again,” said Watson.
That is part of what inspired him to make a documentary of his experience of becoming disabled and navigating the struggles that come with it. Reclaiming the voice he lost — while trying to help others.
“Over 27 times I called the social security office and I never ever got a real person to help me and I thought you know this is crazy so I want people to know how it feels and also how it works for the system,” said Watson.
Watson is still waiting for help when all he really wants to do is get back to living his life doing things he loves, like walking his dog. Hoping to one day get back the life he used to have.
“I also want to get back to law very soon,” said Watson.
He feels more hopeful about it now, as after two and half years of waiting they finally approved him for disability benefits last month, although he still hasn’t received it.
“I didn’t think there was anyone to help, but I feel better about it,” said Watson.
According to the Social Security Administration, at the beginning of 2019, Social Security paid an average monthly disability benefit of about $1,234 to all disabled workers. Which is barely enough to keep them above the 2018 poverty line. The SSA says they give disability benefits to about 9 million people, which is just a fraction of Americans who live with disabilities.