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.

Media Attention to Grid Regs Proposal

The Philadelphia Inquirer is the first traditional media outlet to have any reporting on Social Security's proposal to increase the age categories in the grid regulations by two years, a proposal that will cut disability benefits by almost $6 billion over ten years. The piece by Mark Alan Hughes criticizes the proposal on the grounds that it will have a disproportionate effect upon African Americans. Perhaps a more accurate criticism is that the proposal affects blue collar America almost exclusively and African Americans are a disproportionate part of blue collar America.

One Day Left to Comment on Age Proposal

There is only one day left to comment on Social Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the age classifications in the grid regulations. The proposal would add two years onto each of the age categories, making age 57 the new 55 and 52 the new 50. The change is predicted to cut Social Security disability benefits by almost $6 billion over ten years. Anyone wanting to comment on the NPRM may do so online at an SSA website. The deadline is January 3.

Friedman Warns That Social Security Isn't Secure

Saul Friedman warns in Newsday that the attacks on Social Security have not ended. In 2006 he expects the President and his allies will continue their efforts to privatize Social Security.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Bush's Social Security Gamble

The Washington Post reviews a new book by Nancy J. Altman, entitled The Battle for Social Security: From FDR's Vision to Bush's Gamble. According to Altman, Republican attacks on Social security have a long and completely unsuccessful history. Eisenhower was one who was having nothing to do with such attacks:

He wrote to his brother Edgar in November 1954, ridiculing oil tycoon H.L. Hunt of Texas and like-minded millionaires who refused to accept Social Security. "Their number is negligible," Ike wrote his brother, "and they are stupid."

Where Everyone Knows Your Name and Mod

Those of us who live outside the Baltimore area may have negative attitudes towards the staff at SSA headquarters in Woodlawn, MD, but for those who work there, it is a job like any other job. As this Baltimore Sun article shows, these SSA employees have Monaghan's Pub, a nearby place where everyone knows their name.

Ominous Headline

Today's Wall Street Journal includes a short item with the headline "The White House Wants to Make Entitlement Cuts An Annual Event." The article quotes a "senior official" as saying that the 2007 budget due out in early February will likely include "another substantial set of savings in entitlements", with a figure of $40 billion over five years mentioned.

SSAB on Ticket to Work

The Social Security Advisory Board (SSAB) has filed comments on SSA's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the Ticket to Work program. The comments include this gloomy assessment of the current state of Ticket to Work:

After three years of operation, the participation rate in the Ticket program is very
low. The most recent available data shows that over 11 million tickets have been mailed, yet less than 1 percent of the eligible beneficiaries have actually assigned their ticket. Much work still needs to be done to entice a larger fraction of the remaining millions of beneficiaries to enroll in the program. We applaud SSA’s efforts over this past year to market the Ticket program to beneficiaries, employers and job placement organizations. However, it is clear that more beneficiaries need to access return-to-work services if the program will ever fulfill Congressional desire to facilitate self-sufficiency for a significant proportion of beneficiaries.

The marketplace does not seem to be responding either. The number of employment networks has declined over time. Experience to date shows that there are still financial disincentives for the ENs. Only 45 percent of approved ENs are actively engaged in providing services, and very few, if any, are actually making any money. The ENs state that it is too costly to provide the level of services that are truly required to return beneficiaries to the work place.

Medicare Part D Subsidy Rules

On the last possible day, SSA has published final rules on their part of the administration of the subsidy part of the Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit (Part D of Medicare).