Diagnosed in 1992, approved for SSDI and Medicare upon application in 2003 without dispute or legal representation. My impression from conversations with my doctor at the time was that a documented long-term history of bipolar disorder was essentially guaranteed qualification for SSDI due to the destructive nature of the disease. Medicare was a huge relief, as I was living in California after the COBRA from my last corporate job expired. No health insurer would cover an applicant with a bipolar diagnosis, so if you could show three rejection letters from different insurance companies (you actually had to formally apply to three different insurers for the sole purpose of getting rejected), California would allow you into the state-sponsored 'Maximum Risk' insurance program, originally established to cover chronic smokers and with annual reimbursements limited to $80,000, the cost of a single broken leg, ambulance ride and staph infection. If you should ever have any doubts as to the seriousness of our ailment, remember that the State of California once classified it as a Maximum Risk.