There are two reasons why you will only receive Medicare benefits after 24 months. Even if you qualified for Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), there's always the possibility that you might be able to go back to work and get off SSDI. The government usually gives a window of 24 months for this probability. SSDI is designed to provide assistance to individuals with certain disabilities until their conditions improve. If these people's conditions do not improve, the government will then guarantee income for them. Qualified individuals like you are also required to wait a couple of months before getting Medicare benefits because some people might have disability policies to fill in the gap. Most people still have short and long-term disability insurance through their work which generally covers the 24-month wait before Medicare kicks in. The federal government also considers the waiting period of several months as a fair amount of time for qualified individuals without being too much of a financial hardship for some of them. It's also possible that Medicare benefits are not given right away to those qualified so that the federal government can save money. - June 19, 2009 @ 3:43 pm