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Prepared Statement By Jane Ross Deputy Commissioner For Policy
Social Security Administration
Disability Options In The Private
Sector
Before The House Budget Committee Tuesday,
June 22, 1999 Mr. Chairman and Members of the Task Force: Thank you for
inviting me to discuss the Social Security Disability (SSDI) program and
whether private insurance, by itself, can provide the same degree of
protection to all working Americans at the same low cost. In my statement
today, I will outline the scope and purpose of SSDI, and the cost and
value of coverage. Then I will discuss the two types of insurance now
provided by the private sector to deal with disabilities: first, workers
compensation which applies only to disabilities caused by work, and
second, private disability plans that apply to any disability.
Social Security Disability
The Social Security system as a whole operates as a social insurance
program. That is, Social Security spreads the cost of protection against
the risk of lost income due to retirement, death, or disability over the
entire working population, with more protection, per dollar earnings, for
lower paid workers and for workers with dependents. Consequently, the
value of benefits for any given worker depends on his or her individual
circumstances-- earnings level, marital status, dependent children, years
in the workforce, and age at disability or death. Like Social Security in
general, the SSDI program provides an extra measure of protection for
lower-wage workers. Due to the progressive nature of the program, the
benefits formula replaces a greater percentage of preretirement earnings
for lower-wage workers than higher-wage workers.
Largely absent from the current public debate is the fact that about
one third of Social Security beneficiaries are not retirees or their
dependents. They represent severely disabled workers, their children, or
the surviving family members of workers who have died. Social Security
pays benefits to more than 4.7 million disabled workers, nearly 1.5
million children of disabled workers, and almost 200,000 spouses of
disabled workers. Because about 25 to 30 percent of today's 20-year olds
will become disabled before retirement, the protection provided by the
SSDI program is extremely important. This is especially true for young
families often straggling to afford adequate private insurance. For a
young, married, average worker with two children, Social Security is the
equivalent of a $233,000 disability income insurance policy. In addition,
SSDI benefits, like retirement benefits, are adjusted for inflation, so
that the value of the benefit is maintained over time. Disabled workers
and their dependents received $47.6 billion in cash benefits under the
Social Security program in fiscal year 1998.
Furthermore, SSDI benefits are the gateway to the Medicare program to
those individuals who have been eligible for disability benefits for 24
months. These benefits provide health care coverage that to many SSDI
beneficiaries is simply irreplaceable, since many would not be able to
obtain insurance in private markets simply because they are already
disabled. The Medicare program paid over $24 billion in benefits in fiscal
year 1998 to individuals whose entitlement to Medicare is based on their
SSDI benefits. Thus, about $72 billion was paid in fiscal year 1998 from
the Social Security and Medicare programs on behalf of disabled workers
and their families.As with the retirement program, SSDI is funded through
a payroll tax on covered earnings, paid by employees, their employers, and
the self-employed. The current payroll tax on earnings is 0.85 percent for
employees and employers, each, and 1.7 percent for the self-employed.
SSDI is designed to protect workers covered under the Social Security
program who become severely disabled, and it strives to ensure that
applicants are judged on the basis of a uniform set of standards. The
criteria we use to award disability benefits requires that the condition
either be expected to result in death or last at least 12 months. To
qualify, the individual must be unable to perform any substantial work in
the national economy because of a medical condition. Thus, the inability
to do one's own past work or the inability to find suitable employment are
not a sufficient basis for meeting the definition of disability.
Additionally, applicants must have worked 20 quarters during the 40
quarter period ending with the quarter in which disability began (special
provisions apply for workers who are under age 31), and they must complete
a 5-month waiting period after the onset of the disability.
After a claim is taken in one of Social Security's field offices, it is
forwarded to one of the State Disability Determination Services. These
state employees are responsible for following up on at least one year's
worth of medical evidence in support of the claim, scheduling consultative
examinations if necessary, and making the disability determination at the
initial and reconsideration (the first level of appeal of an adverse
initial determination) levels. The States are fully reimbursed for making
these determinations. The process of evaluating an individual's disability
accounts for the administrative costs for the disability program being
somewhat higher (3.3 percent of benefits) than those for the retirement
and survivor program, largely because of the cost of obtaining medical
evidence and the need for a thorough evaluation by a physician or other
highly trained professional reviewer.
While the Social Security eligibility criteria are very strict, we also
have a very structured system to ensure that applicants' rights are
protected and that those applicants who are eligible, actually get their
benefits. Currently, a physician must be part of the decisionmaking team,
although we are testing a system where certain claims, generally the most
severe and obvious cases, would be decided by a trained layperson. After a
reconsideration denial, a claim can be appealed to an administrative law
judge, then the Appeals Council and up to a federal court. We also are
testing a model, which would streamline the process by eliminating the
reconsideration step.
While the primary purpose of SSDI is to replace a portion of income,
the program also includes provisions designed to encourage beneficiaries
to return to work. Even when individuals have significant disabilities,
with appropriate support and vocational rehabilitation (VR), they may be
able to work again. The primary mechanism that is used by Social Security
to help people return to work is the referral of beneficiaries to State
vocational rehabilitation services. I would like to mention at this time
the Administration-proposed legislation in 1997 that called for a Ticket
to Independence program that would further our efforts at rehabilitation
by introducing the concept of consumer choice in obtaining employment
services. Similar legislation overwhelmingly passed in the House in 1998
and has now evolved into the Work Incentives Improvements Act that passed
the Senate by a vote of 99 to 0 on June 16, 1999. The President's budget
provides full funding support for this legislation.
I would like to turn now to a discussion of the range of workers
compensation and private disability benefits available.
Workers Compensation
While SSDI covers workers with severe disabilities regardless of how
the disability was developed, the workers' compensation (WC) system is
designed to provide reimbursement for lost wages and medical expenses for
workers who become disabled as a result of an on-the-job injury. WC laws
were first enacted in the early 1900s and now separate programs are
provided in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia.
Virtually all employers are required to secure their compensation
liability either through private insurance, by self-insuring, or by
membership in a State fund. Employers who secure their compensation
liability are protected from other liability that could arise because of
injuries to their employees.
One of the primary goals of an effective WC program is to restore the
injured workers to their previous employment, and thus the programs
emphasize medical and vocational rehabilitation. Other benefits include
weekly payments that are based on the degree of disability sustained as a
result of the injury, and such medical care as the nature of the injury or
process of recovery may require. Benefit payments totaled $42.6 billion in
1996.
Workers compensation is not a stand-alone system. It is the first
payor, but integrates with Social Security. In most States if workers go
on the Social Security disability rolls, the Social Security payment is
reduced, so that the combined Social Security/workers compensation amounts
are limited to 80 percent of pre-disability earnings.
Employer-Provided Private Disability Insurance
Modern-day private disability insurance grew up in a climate that
already included Social Security and other public benefits such as VR and
WC. As a result, these private plans assumed the existence of Social
Security and were tailored to integrate with it. There are many different
types of private disability insurance plans. While they fall under two
general categories, short-term and long-term, there are many variations.
About twothirds of long-term plans are employer-sponsored, and about
one-third of plans are individually purchased. Further adding to the
variety are the differing definitions and provisions within the plans;
there is no standard terminology.
The definitions of disability within the types of plans vary to some
extent, but they generally share major characteristics. Short-term
disability plans typically include payments for short-term impairments as
well as pregnancy. Employer-sponsored longterm disability plans usually
have a more lenient definition of disability for the first two years,
after which the definition becomes more stringent. Generally, the initial
definition is the inability to perform the employee's usual occupation.
After two years, the definition usually requires the employee to be unable
to perform any occupation, similar to the social security definition.
Finally, while there are exceptions, most individually purchased plans
define disability as the inability to perform one's usual occupation for
the entire benefit period-- generally to age 65. While SSDI benefits are
limited to age 65 as well, the individual begins receiving retirement
benefits on attainment of age 65, and the conversion from disability to
retirement benefits is invisible to the beneficiary.
Short-term disability and long-term disability plans serve different
purposes and have different provisions. Generally, short-term disability
plans refer to a formal plan in which benefits begin after sick pay has
expired, though benefits may be in lieu of sick pay. Based on Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS) data, nearly 34 percent of full time private sector
plus State and local government workers in this country have some type of
short-term disability plan.t Short-term disability plans usually replace
from 40-70 percent of earnings, but can replace earnings entirely. Benefit
periods range from 30 days to 6 months, though some plans have terms of up
to 24 months. Ninety percent of employees return to work within 8 weeks,
often because the impairments covered are not severe, e.g. recovery from
surgery. Because of the short-term nature of most short-term disability
impairments, there is little connection between short-term disability
plans and Social Security. Ideally, employer sponsored long-term
disability plans begin paying when short-term disability benefits end. The
earnings replacement rate for these longterm disability plans is about 60
percent of pre-disability earnings, up to a maximum dollar amount.
Only one third of full-time workers currently have employer-sponsored
long-term disability plans.2 The following chart shows the percentage of
employees of state and local government, small firms (under 100 employees)
and medium/large firms with employer sponsored long-term disability plans
by category of occupation.3 It is worth noting that employees with the
most arduous jobs--those who presumably need the protection the most--are
less likely to have long-term disability plans.
Long-term plans can provide both cash benefits and rehabilitation
services. They screen their beneficiaries with a view toward
rehabilitation, and decisions on what benefits to provide often turn on
the cost of rehabilitation vs. the cost of benefits, in addition to job
availability. Many larger employers use disability management strategies
including early intervention and partial or residual benefits to encourage
return to work.
In determining cash benefit levels, employer-sponsored long-term
disability plans usually are integrated with Social Security and WC. Those
employees who meet the Social Security definition of disability are
encouraged or required to apply for Social Security benefits. In fact,
insurers and employers count on the integration of their plans with Social
Security; long-term disability benefits are generally offset--reduced--by
Social Security benefits.
Individually Purchased Disability InsuranceIndividual disability
plans are thought to be a small part of the private market although there
is a lack of data on the actual extent of coverage. However, experts
believe participation is quite limited because they tend to be very
expensive. Participation is mostly limited to highly compensated employees
or self-employed individuals. These plans may replace up to 80 percent of
earnings, though more typical replacement rates are 60-70 percent. Often,
payments of these plans, in contrast to employer-sponsored longterm
disability plans, are not reduced by Social Security or other programs.
Costs of Coverage
Perhaps the most useful approach in examining the cost of private
disability insurance is viewing it in terms of value to the beneficiary.
This value can be determined by looking at the proportion of the premium
dollar that is returned as benefits to policyholders. We can determine
this proportion by looking at the cost structure of companies, although
they vary from company to company. One major insurer estimated costs as
shown on the following chart. It should be noted that only 45 cents of
every premium dollar is returned to beneficiaries.'* Claims processing
costs account for about 3 percent of this category.
Clearly it is difficult to compare private and public sector costs
since the enterprises are so different. As previously noted, Social
Security disability administrative costs are about 3 percent of disability
payroll taxes. It would be tempting to conclude that the private sector
costs are similar, since private sector claims processing costs in this
example are estimated at 3 percent. But administrative costs are also
embedded in other categories, such as acquisitions (which represents items
such as underwriting and sales) and customer service (for instance,
billing and other policy services). And the bottom line is that the Social
Security system returned 97 percent of the money it takes in to
beneficiaries while private firms return far less--as little as 45 percent
of the money it takes in.
Access to Private Insurance CoverageBecause of the potential
adverse selection risk to insurers, the disability income insurance market
is heavily underwritten. Persons who are at higher than normal risk for
becoming disabled, or whose income stream is not consistent over time,
would likely be deemed uninsurable by the providers of private disability
insurance. In this environment, it is highly unlikely that a market for
private disability insurance would emerge to provide the same universal
coverage available under SSDI.
ConclusionMr. Chairman, at the beginning of my statement I said
that I would address the question "can private disability, by itself,
provide the same degree of protection to all working Americans at the same
low cost as SSDI?" The answer to that is obviously no. If private
disability were to become a substitute for, rather than a complement to
Social Security, its costs would be prohibitively higher, and not everyone
would be allowed access to vital coverage. For example, Social Security
benefits are paid to all workers who meet coverage and disability
requirements; private insurers may exclude some people from coverage
because they are at a higher risk of becoming disabled and therefore would
be uninsurable.
Private disability insurance serves an important purpose in providing
an additional degree of financial security for the minority of the
workforce that enjoys coverage. However, the operative word is additional.
Only Social Security provides coverage to all workers and
dependents---coverage that is provided at lower cost and greater value
than now available on the private market.
This concludes my remarks. I would be happy to answer any questions you
and the other Task Force members might have.
FOOTNOTES:
1 BLS data used here include all full time US employees except Federal,
agriculture, and private household workers
2 The same universe applies here.
3 It should be noted that for State and local, the
professional/technical category includes teachers; for small
establishments, white collar includes clerical/sales staff; for
medium/large establishments, white collar includes clerical/sales and blue
collar includes production/services.
4 The actual amount is somewhat less since claims processing costs also
consume about 3 percent of this category.
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