.The Disability Insurance Monster
Updated November 14, 2010, 01:45 PM
Andrew G. Biggs is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former principal deputy commissioner of the Social Security Administration.
The fastest rising cost for Social Security isn’t retiring baby boomers, but skyrocketing Disability Insurance benefits. Disability benefits now make up 18 percent of all Social Security costs, up from only 10 percent in 1990. This year, the federal government will spend $125 billion for disability benefits. Including the Medicare benefits that are paid to D.I. recipients, total expenditures approach $200 billion.
Tighten the loose eligibility standards, which have made it easier for the non-disabled to qualify for benefits..Why have disability costs risen so fast? The main reason is looser eligibility standards passed by Congress in the 1980s that expanded the criteria for disability and put greater emphasis on evidence presented by applicants own doctors rather than the Social Security Administration's experts. Likewise, increasing numbers of D.I. applicants are represented by lawyers, with the result that S.S.A. loses two-thirds of appeals against denied benefits. The economists David Autor of M.I.T. and Mark Duggan of the University of Maryland conclude, “The rapid growth of Disability Insurance does not appear to be explained by a true rise in the incidence of disabling illness, but rather by policies that increased the subjectivity and permeability of the disability screening process.”
Four steps would help screen out non-disabled applicants while ensuring the disabled continue to receive benefits. First, give greater credence to evidence from the Social Security Administration's own experts, rather than deferring to applicants’ own doctors. Second, allow S.S.A. to be represented by its lawyers in disability appeals. One study found that mistaken judgments could be cut in half if the S.S.A. were represented. Third, the Social Security Administration should receive funds to carry out more Continuing Disability Reviews to ensure that current beneficiaries remain qualified. These reviews save $10 in program costs for each dollar they cost to undertake.
Finally, making health coverage more affordable to low earners could reduce disability costs by making the Medicare coverage that comes alongside disability less attractive.
MY OPINION:
Workmens Compensation or (L & I) premiums are skyrocketing big time folks!!! Boomers are faking injuries in record numbers and asking for early retirement now that there's no labor market demand for their services (construction, manufacturing, etc) Poor morals and a socialist government is all that's needed to bring down business and industry! Also, there are more government jobs now than construction and manufacturing combined FYI!! If you add retired government and those living off government, it approaches 50% of us- I call that one big fat conflict of interest when voting for more government, don't you?? Probably shouldn't be allowed to vote if your working in government, retired from government or living off government!! It's called fairness & equality!
