Living Proof

Orall Gustafson found out this week that he’s dead.

At least that’s what the Social Security Administration told him when he called to ask why his medical benefits had been suspended.

“Nobody had told me,” said Gustafson, 75, who was very much alive Wednesday.

Government officials say they are looking into Gustafson’s status. Until they can confirm that he is breathing, though, the San Juan Capistrano retiree will have to do without his monthly Social Security check and health care coverage.

“This could be disastrous,” said Gustafson, who lives in a mobile home park and has a modest income. “Maybe I’m experiencing Y2K already. I just call every day to find out if I’m back to life yet.”

Gustafson, a World War II veteran and retired Marine, works part time as a landscaper and has been receiving Social Security benefits for 13 years. He learned of his new official status Monday when he went to a local drugstore to pick up medication his doctor had prescribed for a nasty case of bronchitis.

The pharmacist told Gustafson he was no longer enrolled in Secure Horizons, through which he gets medical services. When he called the Cypress-based HMO, “they said I’d been terminated because Social Security said I was dead,” Gustafson said.

Megan Crowley, a spokeswoman for Secure Horizons, confirmed that, saying Gustafson had been dropped March 1 after the company received a letter from the Health Care Financing Administration--the federal agency governing Medicare--declaring him deceased. “We rely on the Social Security Administration to report this information accurately,” she said.

Shawn Fordham, a spokesman for Social Security in Baltimore, said Wednesday he is looking into Gustafson’s case and will make any necessary corrections.

Fordham said the government usually gets word of a pensioner’s death from family members, a funeral home, hospital or bureau of vital statistics. If the information comes from other sources, he said, the agency tries to verify it. He said he did not know what happened in Gustafson’s case. Generally, he said, “we wouldn’t suspend their benefits until we’re sure.”

This week Gustafson submitted a copy of his driver’s license to the Social Security Administration, along with this signed statement: “I am alive and well and want my benefits reinstated.” His medical benefits are on hold until Secure Horizons receives confirmation from the government that he is, indeed, alive.

Meanwhile, Gustafson said, he is feeling pretty good for a person purportedly without a pulse. He ended up paying $55 for the prescribed antibiotic, and his bronchitis has improved.

He said he will call the Social Security Administration’s 800 number every morning until he is resurrected. As of Wednesday, he said, “I was still dead. So I went back to bed.”