Interesting Comment on Age NPRM

Alan Polonsky, an attorney in private practice, made an interesting comment on Social Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would increase the age categories in the grid regulations by two years. Polonsky writes:

The stated premise of the proposed rule is that advances in health care have increased life expectancy. You state that the change from 1978, when the guidelines were published, to today is just under 4 years increase from 73.5 to 77. You then make the assumption that this means that at all ages, individuals are 3.5 years healthier than they were in 1978. The two do not follow.

With particular regards to the less educated, the research shows quite the opposite. On November 6, 2005, the New York Times published a synopsis of research from a paper presented by Peter Muennig at the Fall 2005 Symposium of the Campaign for Social Equity of Teacher’s College, Columbia University. The paper is available for review at http://devweb.tc.columbia.edu/manager/symposium/Files/81_Muennig_paper.ed.pdf

Among the specific findings were that the life expectancy of a high school dropout is nine years less than that of a high school graduate and that the health of a typical high school graduate is similar to that of more educated persons twenty years older.