PrepTest 110, Section 3, Question 18
A person is more likely to become disabled(69 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(14 more words not shown)
- AThe treatment of(22 more words not shown)
- BSome people receive(14 more words not shown)
- CMedical advances have(11 more words not shown)
- DFor persons receiving(23 more words not shown)
- EUnder most employers'(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
More disability, but fewer people receiving disability payments? Those aren't automatically the same measurement.
I can accept that disability becomes more likely with age. Still, having a disability doesn't by itself show that someone receives benefits. Maybe older people face different eligibility rules. Maybe getting the necessary evaluation or completing an application is harder for one group. There are several possible places for the connection between disability and payments to break.
The author's explanation is that more jobs offer disability benefits now than in the past. That could help explain why people from the younger age group are more likely to have coverage. But how do we know that this is the whole explanation for the payment rates dropping from 4 percent to 2 percent to 1 percent?
What we’re looking for
The question asks for evidence that the explanation is at best incomplete. We don't need to show that the change in job benefits played no role. I'd look for another reason older people would be less likely to receive payments, even though they are more likely to become disabled.
Working the answers
- A
Better treatment could affect people in different age groups. A doesn't tell us that it affects older people in a way that explains their lower rate of receiving benefits. It also doesn't connect restoring partial function with the rules for stopping payments. We still lack an explanation of the difference among the age groups.
- B
Having two possible sources of payment doesn't explain how payment rates vary with age. Perhaps government benefits reach all age groups in similar proportions; perhaps they don't. B gives no information about that distribution. We need a missing part of the age-group explanation, not merely a fact that some benefits come from somewhere other than employers.
- C
Longer average lives don't tell us why a smaller proportion of older people receive disability benefits. The puzzle already allows that more older people become disabled. We need information about why the payments don't follow that pattern, and an increase in overall lifespan doesn't supply it.
- D
The size of the payment is different from whether someone receives one. A person receiving a smaller share of their former income still counts as receiving disability payments. D compares payment amounts over time; our question concerns the proportion receiving payments in different age groups.
- ECorrect
Under most employers' plans, payments stop at age 65. Someone can remain disabled while no longer receiving the employer's disability benefit. So moving from the 55–64 group to the older groups changes eligibility for those payments, independently of how many jobs offered coverage in the past.
That supplies another reason for the decline in the proportion receiving benefits. We don't have to assume people stop seeking diagnoses at 65, and we don't have to explain the exact size of every drop. The direct payment cutoff shows that the author's story about growing job coverage leaves out an important factor.
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