There are 64 million people on Social Security. Deaths from COVID are currently less than 400,000. So the benefit of hastened deaths is minimal.

The real cost of COVID won't be able to be calculated for years. I fear the long-haulers who never really recover from COVID are going to be expensive for the medical systems.

What is the average yearly for someone on SS? $20,000? What about Medicare?

Yearly savings of six or seven billion plus medical costs maybe...

And if “long haulers” actually experience lifelong problems, the chances are their life expectancy would be reduced. That said, the expectation is that there is no permanent problems from Covid, only some people who take months to recover. So I doubt the reduced life expectancy will come into play.

I find it interesting that anyone would think that there would not be people disabled from the virus and any medical problems are short term. I do not remember, or care, but three people on here have mentioned that their heart was damaged by the virus. Those whose lungs or other body parts were damaged will have scarring. That scarring will reduce the function of those body parts. As people age especially with the heart and lung damage it will only get worse. It may take decades for that damage to happen but when it does the number of people on disability will increase. In the US the cost of those disabilities are on the family and SSDI and Medicaid/Medicare pays little toward that cost except for a few diseases like ALS and End Stage Kidney disease.

"I wonder if fewer benefits (former recipients deceased) will make much difference, balanced against increased medical payments for Medicare-insured Covid patients (hospitalizations, rehabilitation care)."

While both benefit programs are of course part of the federal government, they're under different branches. One thing they have in common is that source of benefit payments are federal funds that can be paid by the government without regard to any matching or tracing back to current receipts. Which are really just supplemental income taxes anyway.

Stated another way, current receipts of social security and Medicare taxes are not the only sources of funds used to pay Social Security and Medicare benefits.

My eye was caught by seeing "social security" because my husband is having a big problem with them, stemming from a typo of his birth town when he applied for a ss number, decades ago. Offices are closed and info isn't in-putted though he's made many, many calls. They've had his passport for a couple of months now and it's all keeping him awake at night. I might post here about this to see if anyone has any further ideas on how to rectify this silly mistake.

sjerin I do not know if it is possible still but SS used to accept notarized statements from people who were alive at the time of birth for all kinds of information. Alternative would be checking newspapers for birth announcements. There are on line newspaper records but they normally require a membership.

sjerin - you might write (or email) your congressperson, after you've exhausted all other options.

Thank you, Nickel. Yes, that will be our next step. Husband had another conversation today and this one sounds more promising. Anna Eshoo came through for him with a traveling visa problem some years ago, so we will try her again if no progress is made after today.

Maifleur, husband was told to to send in his passport which will be acceptable; they do have it and just need to input the info. But only certain people (person?) can do this and he cannot communicate with her. He's been given another name so hopefully that person can do same.

Thank you for your suggestions.

Interesting. When I went to complete the paperwork at the SS after my husband died the person behind the counter saw my passport in the stack took it and scanned a page then handed it right back. No inputting information just a quick scan.

No SS offices are open, thus the mailing.

You need to first know if COVID is resulting in a net greater death rate this year than others. I have never seen numbers "300 died today, only 100 last year on this same date"!!! MOST of those who died were already DYING and would have died this year most likely anyway. The hospital system cannot handle the respirator needs but that does not mean we are lessening our over all population. Again the fear mongering over this is horrendous, the facts are not so much.

Arcy,

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/excess_deaths.htm

This persistence is amazing.

"You need to first know if COVID is resulting in a net greater death rate this year than others."

We do know that. It's tracked by the CDC on a weekly basis. There are analyses on various data trackers (Our World in Data), papers in respected journals on excess deaths in different age groups and states, and media reports on the numbers. I find it surprising that there are people who have been unable to locate this data. Over 300,000 more deaths this year than would be normal.

There are people who would rather repeat extremist propaganda with no factual basis although it's all since been long discredited.

Of course facts are easily found but not by those who don't look, out of fear for facts they will find that will contradict what they'd rather say.