Disbility, Anyone?

[Wonky]

My go-to Podcast is "This American Life" a Podcast authored by Ira Glass on public radio.

Below is the radio transcript of the show this week. Best to listen, and you can find it on www.thisamericanlife.org


490: Trends With Benefits
Mar 22, 2013
The number of Americans receiving federal disability payments has nearly doubled over the last 15 years. There are towns and counties around the nation where almost 1/4 of adults are on disability. Planet Money's Chana Joffe-Walt spent 6 months exploring the disability program, and emerges with a story of the U.S. economy quite different than the one we've been hearing. Web Extra: here.

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Web Extra: Planet Money's Videos, Graphs, and Photos

Prologue
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Ira Glass talks with Planet Money reporter, Chana Joffe-Walt, about Hale County, Alabama — a place where one fourth of working age adults are on disability. That means the government has determined that due to a health issue, 25 percent of the adults in Hale County are unable to work, qualifying them for monthly payments and health care coverage. Chana explains that people in Hale County have a lot of theories as to why their disability numbers are so high: freeloaders, cheaters, hard partiers, obesity. But none of those seem quite right. The rise in disability isn't just happening in Hale County but in pockets all over the country. 14 million people are now receiving disability payments. And it's a number that is growing. We devote the whole show today to figuring out why these numbers are ballooning and what it says about our economy. (7 minutes)Economics • Health Care/Medicine
Chana Joffe-Walt
Act One
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Chana Joffe-Walt spent six months reporting on the rise in people on disability. She spends time in Hale County, Alabama, talking to the only general practitioner in town, the main person who okays so many of the county's residents for disability. In addition to giving each patient a medical exam, the doctor also asks this question: what grade did you finish? Chana explains why that one question is so central to the whole story. (22 minutes)Economics • Education
Chana Joffe-Walt
Act Two
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Chana Joffe-Walt continues her story about the phenomenal rise in disability payments over the last 30 years, since President Bill Clinton signed legislation pledging to "end welfare as we know it." Turns out, two private sector groups have really contributed to the growing disability roles. One is a group of people you'd probably expect, the other is a shock. And Chana looks at one of the fastest growing populations on disability: kids. (26 minutes)Economics
Chana Joffe-Walt

[reelo]

I wish they would mention how many of these kids 30 years ago would have ended up in the institution, we've slowly made the not just humane but logical choice to fund parent to keep their kids home and cared for instead of spending more to keep them in the institutions. Saying disability payments are going up is a wee bit of a misnomer, yes they are going up to a degree but you also have to consider how much we had spent mainting the institutions and providing that care through out a persons life.

Middle kiddo is eligible for services, we've never really used them because we don't need them but for a lot of families that funding is the difference between care and no care for a child. No one is talking about what happens if that funding gets cut-- do we have parents turning their kids over to the state to get them care? It's not a win for anyone involved including us taxpayers.

[Clone]

I wish they would mention how many of these kids 30 years ago would have ended up in the institution, we've slowly made the not just humane but logical choice to fund parent to keep their kids home and cared for instead of spending more to keep them in the institutions. Saying disability payments are going up is a wee bit of a misnomer, yes they are going up to a degree but you also have to consider how much we had spent mainting the institutions and providing that care through out a persons life.

Middle kiddo is eligible for services, we've never really used them because we don't need them but for a lot of families that funding is the difference between care and no care for a child. No one is talking about what happens if that funding gets cut-- do we have parents turning their kids over to the state to get them care? It's not a win for anyone involved including us taxpayers.

Good points. Thank you reelo!
I wonder if our toxic environment has contributed to this also.

[illcommandante]

I butt heads, with competition on disability. Most of the real pros, picking yard sales, are there for the anonymity. They cheat us all. But, you can only throw rocks, at the early birds.

[PonderThis]

When I was a kid delivering papers I came on a Goodwill truck, with a guy that didn't look disabled to me. I asked him what his disability was, and he went on a long lecture about how you should never ask someone what they were disabled with, there were all kinds of disabilities and not all of them showed.

I've always been reluctant ever since to ask anyone what their disabilities are.

[Wonky]

I wish they would mention how many of these kids 30 years ago would have ended up in the institution, we've slowly made the not just humane but logical choice to fund parent to keep their kids home and cared for instead of spending more to keep them in the institutions. Saying disability payments are going up is a wee bit of a misnomer, yes they are going up to a degree but you also have to consider how much we had spent mainting the institutions and providing that care through out a persons life.

Middle kiddo is eligible for services, we've never really used them because we don't need them but for a lot of families that funding is the difference between care and no care for a child. No one is talking about what happens if that funding gets cut-- do we have parents turning their kids over to the state to get them care? It's not a win for anyone involved including us taxpayers.

Good points. Thank you reelo!
I wonder if our toxic environment has contributed to this also.

Nope.
The full article explains the sad truth.
Most are not lazy people scamming the system.
They are people who simply can't find work. Time has pasted them by. Most are 50 years or older and will never learn new skills even if they had prerequisite abilities for retraining. Just too late.

So, many doctors see it like this: These are people who are willing to work, even if there bodies have been beat up manual labor. But they will never find work. Many doctors see that as a "disability". So, they find a sore back, file the paperwork, and there goes the numbers.

Nothin' is ever so clear, is it?

[tvguy]

I wish they would mention how many of these kids 30 years ago would have ended up in the institution, we've slowly made the not just humane but logical choice to fund parent to keep their kids home and cared for instead of spending more to keep them in the institutions. Saying disability payments are going up is a wee bit of a misnomer, yes they are going up to a degree but you also have to consider how much we had spent mainting the institutions and providing that care through out a persons life.

Middle kiddo is eligible for services, we've never really used them because we don't need them but for a lot of families that funding is the difference between care and no care for a child. No one is talking about what happens if that funding gets cut-- do we have parents turning their kids over to the state to get them care? It's not a win for anyone involved including us taxpayers.

Good points. Thank you reelo!
I wonder if our toxic environment has contributed to this also.

Nope.
The full article explains the sad truth.
Most are not lazy people scamming the system.
They are people who simply can't find work. Time has pasted them by. Most are 50 years or older and will never learn new skills even if they had prerequisite abilities for retraining. Just too late.

So, many doctors see it like this: These are people who are willing to work, even if there bodies have been beat up manual labor. But they will never find work. Many doctors see that as a "disability". So, they find a sore back, file the paperwork, and there goes the numbers.

Nothin' is ever so clear, is it?

Wadaya mean "nope" you admit that it's the environment , an environment where "people simply can't find work"

[illcommandante]

I was sent to this limbo, thirty years ago. Lately, it's gotten better. The past few days, unimagineably better. Fifty is a bit late to get traction, when it takes a lot of learning. But, someone is making out. To spend what they do, on the stuff I sell. A lot of it is rich (Or okay) men's toys. Of no real use. Investment pieces, maybe. But, I've gotten that value out, already. Money proves the ability to get money. And, is a good indicator, of anything possible. I get it when I move stuff. And then, I have to get more stuff. While, a lot of us, innocent of any wrong doing, don't have one good choice. The heroin freak, is lucky he doesn't have web. So as not to know he's Cave Junction's poster child. Heroin would improve him. Free heroin for him, would be great for all. Methadone, would be great for some folks, with provider numbers. "Drugs will get you through times of no money, better than money will get you through times of no drugs" (Fabulous Furry Freak Bros?). A lot of us got here autistic? ADHD? Or, something less palatable. The penalty shouldn't be a loss of life.