Bureaucracy Is (Not) the Death of Him

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 and well Wednesday.

Government officials say that 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.

“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, works part time as a landscaper and has been receiving Social Security benefits for 13 years. He learned of his new status Monday when he went to pick up medication for a bad 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 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 Gustafson had been dropped March 1 after the company received a letter from the Health Care Financing Administration--the federal agency that governs 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 that he is looking into Gustafson’s case and will make any necessary corrections.

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.”

Meanwhile, Gustafson said, he is feeling pretty good for a person without a pulse.

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