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| You'll have to go to the link to make it interactive. |
Mathematica has put together an interactive map showing the incidence of disability by county in the United States. Make of it what you will. I'd say it mostly shows that disability is more common in rural areas.
11 comments:
There isn't much with this data other than to confirm after getting on disability, many people relocate since their federal income is stable regardless of where they live. They might relocate to the southern states with more affordable homes. Like I lived in California and became disabled during the housing bubble. I had to move to another state, yes a southern one, to afford a home.
Not surprising. Many rural areas typically require physically demanding jobs like farming or coal mining. Makes sense.
Oh boy look at all those high disability areas. Those are also red red areas in terms of vote and they hate hate socialism. Incredible.
State-level variations might be affected by Medicaid expansion (Who gets the treatment needed to avoid disability altogether? Conversely, who is able to document their disability in a way that SSA actually awards benefits?).
The urban-rural divide is likely also influenced by access to medical care: some people, if treated by really good specialists, may be able to maintain/recover enough function to keep working. But those specialists cluster in cities.
I also think it would be useful to further age-adjust. The map uses age 18-64. But most people who get DI are over age 50, and I'd guess that the rural areas have lost a lot of their 18-49 population and have a higher percentage of people in the 50-64 age category than most urban areas.
@2:25 - Ironic, isn't it? Blows my mind when I see the "dark red vote-but some socialism is ok", areas of our country, as they vote against the socialist programs they are currently on. Boggles the mind.
Hmmm. Looks like the darkest area is that covered by the Huntington WV Hearing Office. Just say'in
CBPP wrote about this: "Geographic Pattern of Disability Receipt Largely Reflects Economic and Demographic Factors: Disability Benefits Especially Important in South and Appalachia" https://www.cbpp.org/research/geographic-pattern-of-disability-receipt-largely-reflects-economic-and-demographic-factors
Perhaps not much change in 25 years. See McCoy, Davis, and Hudson, 1994: https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/ssb/v57n1/v57n1p25.pdf
Fascinating map. I see a lot of speculation in the comments as to causes but little real basis for it. I have suspicions too. I believe that poverty levels generally correlate with other factors such as lower education levels which also correlate with poor health and certainly less access to health care. If I had the time and resources, it would be great to try to analyze this data and see where there are those correlations that could explain so much about "disability" in this country.
Wonder how many reps are looking at this as a business model?
This is the result of the grids. Low to no education and low to no skills in rural areas.
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