Thursday, August 23, 2012

Disability Increasing: I Assign Blame.

Russ Roberts on Disability

Russ Roberts shows that the number of workers as a percentage of overall employed workers is increasing.  I would imagine there is a connection to the amount of litigation faced by practitioners of medicine.  Many medical providers might feel that refusing to grant Total and Permanent Disability status to their patients is more trouble than it's worth.  This makes Workers Comp insurance more expensive for companies, increases their input costs, makes them raise prices on any manner of goods, reduces consumer surplus.

So what's the connection?  Fear of Litigation=>Doctors grant disability status=>Raises WC Premiums=>Raises cost of labor to companies=>Leads to higher prices for goods=>lowers quality of life for consumers.  So, we need tort reform.

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