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The Disability Mess

Social Security Administration office

Updated, May 8, 12:30 p.m. | Richard V. Burkhauser, a public policy professor, explains how the disability system would be improved if it followed the welfare reform model.

Updated, May 8, 10:20 a.m. | Tim Moore, a former disability claims examiner in North Carolina joins this discussion.

The 2010 budget unveiled on Thursday by the Obama administration estimates that the government can generate huge savings if it devotes more resources to eliminating fraud, abuse and waste in Medicare, Medicaid and the Social Security disability insurance program.

n the Social Security program alone, the White House proposes to spend $4.3 billion over five years to fight fraud associated with disability claims — a problem, officials say, that stems from lack of oversight. Federal spending on disability insurance leaped 65 percent from 2001 to 2007, “yet the number of full medical reviews, one type of review for evaluating claims for eligibility for continuing disability payments,