Federal Policy and the Rise in Disability Enrollment: Evidence for the Veterans Affairs’ Disability Compensation Program
研究了2001年立法变化使越战老兵更容易因糖尿病获得残疾补偿后，该政策对参保人数、支出及受益人行为的影响，发现参保率提高6个百分点，但未显著影响老兵劳动供给或健康，却减少了其配偶的劳动供给。
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs compensates 13 percent of the nation’s military veterans for service‐related disabilities through the Disability Compensation (DC) program. In 2001, a legislative change made it easier for Vietnam veterans to receive benefits for diabetes associated with military service. In this paper, we investigate this policy’s effect on DC enrollment and expenditures as well as the behavioral response of potential beneficiaries. Our findings demonstrate that the policy increased DC enrollment by 6 percentage points among Vietnam veterans and that an additional 1.7 percent experienced an increase in their DC benefits, which increased annual program expenditures by $2.85 billion in 2007. Using individual‐level data from the Veterans Supplement to the Current Population Survey, we find that the induced increase in DC enrollment had little average impact on the labor supply or health status of Vietnam veterans but did reduce labor supply among their spouses.