ABSTRACT
The costs associated with disability are already substantial, and in the long run they are destined to grow. Rising disability expenditures result partly from the heavy use the disabled make of the health care system and partly from the lack of incentives for prevention of disability within the present system. Even if medical care costs could be brought under control the potential for a long-term rise in disability expenditures would remain. Disability, experts admit with an uncommon sense of unanimity, is correlated with age. The fact that the burden of disability-related medical expenditures falls squarely on the shoulders of the employer becomes more important when the composition of the total expenditures over time is taken into consideration. The high costs of the disability insurance program during the 1970s attracted a great deal of political attention. Efforts at reform illustrate the difficulty of reducing the size of the disability rolls.
