Toward the end of her life, Rand had alienated most of her friends and followers--her books didn't resurge in popularity until right before she died. But in her waning years she was alone and was troubled financially from a number of bad investments. Her husband continued to care for her--the same Frank O'Connor she'd cuckolded because she decided she deserved another, younger lover--and together they applied for medicare and social security when their ailments caught up with them. Frank died in 1974, Ayn lingered until 1982. Ayn had been a chain smoker.
Ayn Rand herself justified those who oppose social welfare programs still benefiting from them:
The same moral principles and considerations apply to the issue of accepting social security, unemployment insurance or other payments of that kind. It is obvious, in such cases, that a man receives his own money which was taken from him by force, directly and specifically, without his consent, against his own choice. Those who advocated such laws are morally guilty, since they assumed the “right” to force employers and unwilling co-workers. But the victims, who opposed such laws, have a clear right to any refund of their own money—and they would not advance the cause of freedom if they left their money, unclaimed, for the benefit of the welfare-state administration.
[font size="1"]emphasis added[/font]
It is not known if the $11,000 in social security benefits Rand recieved, nor the unspecified amount of medicare benefits she received was less, equal to, or greater than the amount she'd paid into the system as a self-employed writer and investor.
The definitive article on this topic is here ==>
http://www.patiastephens.com/2010/12/05/ayn-rand-received-social-security-medicare
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