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Medicare is usually available to those over the age of 65 but there are other circumstances where the Medicare eligibility age is lower. People under 65 with certain disabilities qualify for Medicare enrollment. Likewise, Medicare policy allows people of any age who have End-Stage Renal Disease to participate in the Medicare program. ESRD is permanent damage to the kidneys that necessitates a transplant or dialysis. You usually cannot join a Medicare Advantage Plan if you have ESRD but there are some exceptions.

There are some 88 other diseases that make a person eligible to receive Medicare early under a “compassionate allowance” (or CAL). The number of diseases eligible was increased by 38 in early 2010.

This is the first time diseases have been added to this list since it began in 2008. Originally the list consisted of 25 rare diseases and 25 cancers. The expansion includes brain disorders and diseases that often afflict children. One disease on the list is Early Onset Alzheimers, which afflicts tens of thousands of people in the USA. A complete list of these diseases and conditions is below.

The new list was developed through holding public outreach hearings in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health, the Alzheimer’s Association, the National Organization for Rare Disorders and many other organizations. Information from one of the four previous hearings was also used when adding diseases to the list.

As noted there may be new diseases added in the future. A hearing on adding cardio vascular diseases and multiple organ transplants took place in November 2010. Check with the Social Security Administration for new additions to the list that may come in 2011.

This program will assist with the speedy processing of applications and is through the Social Security Administration. These compassionate allowances are designed to quickly identify those eligible and get them benefits in a speedy fashion.

The list of diseases added in 2010 includes:

1. Alstrom Syndrome
2. Amegakaryocytic Thrombocytopenia
3. Ataxia Spinocerebellar
4. Ataxia Telangiectasia
5. Batten Disease
6. Bilateral Retinoblastoma
7. Cri du Chat Syndrome
8. Degos Disease
9. Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease
10. Edwards Syndrome
11. Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva
12. Fukuyama Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
13. Glutaric Acidemia Type II
14. Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), Familial Type
15. Hurler Syndrome, Type IH
16. Hunter Syndrome, Type II
17. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
18. Junctional Epidermolysis Bullosa, Lethal Type
19. Late Infantile Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses
20. Leigh’s Disease
21. Maple Syrup Urine Disease
22. Merosin Deficient Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
23. Mixed Dementia
24. Mucosal Malignant Melanoma
25. Neonatal Adrenoleukodystrophy
26. Neuronal Ceroid Lipofuscinoses, Infantile Type
27. Niemann-Pick Type C
28. Patau Syndrome
29. Primary Progressive Aphasia
30. Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy
31. Sanfilippo Syndrome
32. Subacute Sclerosis Panencephalitis
33. Tay Sachs Disease
34. Thanatophoric Dysplasia, Type 1
35. Ullrich Congenital Muscular Dystrophy
36. Walker Warburg Syndrome
37. Wolman Disease
38. Zellweger Syndrome
    

The Original List of diseases, established in 2008, eligible for a compassionate allowance are:

1. Acute Leukemia
2. Adrenal Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
3. Alexander Disease (ALX)—Neonatal and Infantile
4. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
5. Anaplastic Adrenal Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
6. Astrocytoma - Grade III and IV
7. Bladder Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
8. Bone Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
9. Breast Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
10. Canavan Disease (CD)
11. Cerebro Oculo Facio Skeletal (COFS) Syndrome
12. Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML)—Blast Phase
13. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)—Adult
14. Ependymoblastoma (Child Brain Tumor)
15. Esophageal Cancer
16. Farber's Disease (FD)—Infantile
17. Friedreichs Ataxia (FRDA)
18. Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), Picks Disease—Type A, Adult
19. Gallbladder Cancer
20. Gaucher Disease (GD)—Type 2
21. Glioblastoma Multiforme (Brain Tumor)
22. Head and Neck Cancers—with distant metastasis or inoperable or uresectable
23. Infantile Neuroaxonal Dystrophy (INAD)
24. Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC)
25. Kidney Cancer—inoperable or unresectable
26. Krabbe Disease (KD)—Infantile
27. Large Intestine Cancer—with distant metastasis or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
28. Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome (LNS)
29. Liver Cancer
30. Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL)
31. Metachromatic Leukodystrophy (MLD)—Late Infantile
32. Niemann-Pick Disease (NPD)—Type A
33. Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer - with metastases to or beyond the hilar nodes or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
34. Ornithine Transcarbamylase (OTC) Deficiency
35. Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI)—Type II
36. Ovarian Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable or unresectable
37. Pancreatic Cancer
38. Peritoneal Mesothelioma
39. Pleural Mesothelioma
40. Pompe Disease—Infantile
41. Rett (RTT) Syndrome
42. Salivary Tumors
43. Sandhoff Disease
44. Small Cell Cancer (of the Large Intestine, Ovary, Prostate, or Uterus)
45. Small Cell Lung Cancer
46. Small Intestine Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
47. Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) - Types 0 And 1
48. Stomach Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent
49. Thyroid Cancer
50. Ureter Cancer—with distant metastases or inoperable, unresectable or recurrent

As noted the CAL initiative is supposed to identify conditions that qualify. If the condition doesn’t meet the very specific criteria it will not be considered as a CAL case. Identified conditions are entered into the “Predictive Model” and a determination is made based on this. The information entered into this model comes from one of two Social Security forms filled out by the person making the claim. For an adult this form is SSA-3820 and for a child it is SSA-3820.

The CAL cases are similar to Terminal Illness claims even though not all compassionate allowance cases involved terminal illnesses.