So it's an interesting question. And disability is absolutely a leading indicator of higher medical costs and excess mortality, so it's a worthwhile exercise. The data would certainly exist; the problem would be getting it. A couple of suggestions:
1. Social Security disability applications - this data should be public. You must adju…
So it's an interesting question. And disability is absolutely a leading indicator of higher medical costs and excess mortality, so it's a worthwhile exercise. The data would certainly exist; the problem would be getting it. A couple of suggestions:
1. Social Security disability applications - this data should be public. You must adjust for the SS waiting period though, i.e. someone must be completely disabled for 5 months before applying.
2. The alternative that comes to mind is data from disability insurers. This would be useful because their definition of disability isn't as strict. However, barring convincing such an insurer to do a study, their data probably isn't directly available. It might be possible to get a sense from their annual reports (incidence, premiums, reserves).
So it's an interesting question. And disability is absolutely a leading indicator of higher medical costs and excess mortality, so it's a worthwhile exercise. The data would certainly exist; the problem would be getting it. A couple of suggestions:
1. Social Security disability applications - this data should be public. You must adjust for the SS waiting period though, i.e. someone must be completely disabled for 5 months before applying.
2. The alternative that comes to mind is data from disability insurers. This would be useful because their definition of disability isn't as strict. However, barring convincing such an insurer to do a study, their data probably isn't directly available. It might be possible to get a sense from their annual reports (incidence, premiums, reserves).