Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The Disability Disaster

Holy crap, this is a must-read.

The topic is the explosion of disability claims and the mechanisms that provide unreasonable incentives to move people onto the disability rolls.

[h/t S. rex]

[The Mystic sends us this response from Media Matters. I have only glanced at it, so I'm not vouching for it, just passing it along.]

8 Comments:

Blogger The Mystic said...

I heard that story on NPR a while back and was surprised enough to Google it. I found this:

http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/2013/03/22/this-american-life-features-error-riddled-story/193215

I haven't investigated too thoroughly, but the refutation seemed reasonable to me, enough to dull the claims by NPR down to non-crazy levels.

Could be wrong, but there it is for what it's worth.

9:10 PM  
Blogger Pete Mack said...

Rarely have I seen such a large number of moral hazards.
• the states pay shysters to get people on disability.
• you can't get medical care if you are working
• Kids told to so poorly in school(!)

On the other hand, back injuries are a real issue in low-paying jobs. Standing still and/or leave lifting heavy objects are both terrible for your back. It's a real problem.

9:14 PM  
Anonymous Lewis Carroll said...

Mystic seems to be right Winston. NPR is starting to look more and more like a water-carrier for the Cult:

http://www.offthechartsblog.org/the-facts-about-disability-insurance/

But I suppose trumped-up alarmism in the pursuit of ideology is no vice.

9:19 PM  
Blogger Pete Mack said...

Also m: I read the MM article. It has dubious interpretation of the number of children with disabilities. The bottom line is: children with disabilities have increased by 70%, with strong correlation with recession rate.

9:20 PM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

For the record, I think that This American Life is PRI.

9:25 PM  
Blogger The Mystic said...

I have no idea what "PRI" means. I even tried this:

http://www.abbreviations.com/PRI

Nothing fits.

10:52 AM  
Blogger Winston Smith said...

Public Radio International

6:35 PM  
Anonymous Jim Bales said...

If one wants to hear from someone with experience in disability and related public policy matters, Wonkblog has a nice piece.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/28/harold-pollack-what-this-american-life-missed-on-disability-insurance/

To my mind the money quote is:
If people are leaving the labor market so that they can get $13,000 per year and health care because that’s better than anything that employers can provide, what does that tell you about the state of the economy?

8:27 AM  

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