SYrJm1MYq8/S9EqKreqw_I/AAAAAAAAAVk/5QzUOQlt8lE/s1600/P1030646.jpg' alt='Cracked Rib Or Punctured Lung From Car' title='Cracked Rib Or Punctured Lung From Car' />The Startling Rise Of Disability In America Planet Money NPRParts of this story will air on This American Life this weekend, and on All Things Considered today and next week. A version of this story with photos, graphics and a video is online here. In the past three decades, the number of Americans who are on disability has skyrocketed. The rise has come even as medical advances have allowed many more people to remain on the job, and new laws have banned workplace discrimination against the disabled. Every month, 1. 4 million people now get a disability check from the government. The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined. Yet people relying on disability payments are often overlooked in discussions of the social safety net. The vast majority of people on federal disability do not work. Yet because they are not technically part of the labor force, they are not counted among the unemployed. In other words, people on disability dont show up in any of the places we usually look to see how the economy is doing. But the story of these programs who goes on them, and why, and what happens after that is, to a large extent, the story of the U. S. economy. Its the story not only of an aging workforce, but also of a hidden, increasingly expensive safety net. Cracked Rib Or Punctured Lung From Car' title='Cracked Rib Or Punctured Lung From Car' />What is a fractured ribA rib fracture is a crack or break in one of the bones of the rib cage. The most common cause of a fractured rib is a direct blow to the chest. Since pain is the main problem with most rib fractures, what can you do for a broken ribFor the past six months, Ive been reporting on the growth of federal disability programs. Ive been trying to understand what disability means for American workers, and, more broadly, what it means for poor people in America nearly 2. Heres what I found. One In Four. In Hale County, Alabama, 1 in 4 working age adults is on disability. On the day government checks come in every month, banks stay open late, Main Street fills up with cars, and anybody looking to unload an old TV or armchair has a yard sale. Sonny Ryan, a retired judge in town, didnt hear disability cases in his courtroom. But the subject came up often. He described one exchange he had with a man who was on disability but looked healthy. Just out of curiosity, what is your disability the judge asked from the bench. I have high blood pressure, the man said. So do I, the judge said. What elseI have diabetes. So do I. Theres no diagnosis called disability. You dont go to the doctor and the doctor says, Weve run the tests and it looks like you have disability. Its squishy enough that you can end up with one person with high blood pressure who is labeled disabled and another who is not. I talked to lots of people in Hale County who were on disability. Sometimes, the disability seemed unambiguous. I was in a 1. Jeep Cherokee Laredo, Dane Mitchell, a 2. I met in a coffee shop, told me. PneumoMediastinum2008.jpg' alt='Cracked Rib Or Punctured Lung From Car' title='Cracked Rib Or Punctured Lung From Car' />Everything below here was added before we began dating the stories. We began this page in 1997. My daughter was hit by a car on her bike. She wound up with bumps. Information on Fractured Rib. Includes topic overview and related information. How to Treat Broken Ribs. Broken or fractured ribs usually occur from a direct blow to the chest or torso, like in a car accident, significant fall or hard hit while. I flipped it both ways, flew 1. Jeep, going through 1. Then I landed into a briar patch. I broke all five of my right toes, my right hip, seven of my vertebrae, shattering one, breaking a right rib, punctured my lung, and then I cracked my neck. Other stories seemed less clear. Do Filme Os Simpsons Dublado Completo. I sat with lots of women in Hale County who told me how their backs kept them up at night and made it hard for them to stand on the job. I used to cry to try to work, one woman told me. It was so painful. People dont seem to be faking this pain, but it gets confusing. I have back pain. My editor has a herniated disc, and he works harder than anyone I know. There must be millions of people with asthma and diabetes who go to work every day. Who gets to decide whether, say, back pain makes someone disabled50 of Birminghams most shocking criminals locked up last year. Rapists, murderers, armed robbers and child killers amongst gallery of shame. Amanda Plays for Keeps. As I pulled onto the ramp the SUVs headlights swept across a boy standing by the road. With his thumb stuck out. He was shivering and looking. As far as the federal government is concerned, youre disabled if you have a medical condition that makes it impossible to work. In practice, its a judgment call made in doctors offices and courtrooms around the country. The health problems where there is most latitude for judgment back pain, mental illness are among the fastest growing causes of disability. In Hale County, there was one guy whose name was mentioned in almost every story about becoming disabled Dr. Perry Timberlake. I began to wonder if he was the reason so many people in Hale County are on disability. Maybe he was running some sort of disability scam, referring tons of people into the program. After sitting in the waiting room of his clinic several mornings in a row, I met Dr. Timberlake. It turns out, there is nothing shifty about him. He is a doctor in a very poor place where pretty much every person who comes into his office tells him they are in pain. Burraco Software Contro Computer. We talk about the pain and what its like, he says. I always ask them, What grade did you finishWhat grade did you finish, of course, is not really a medical question. But Dr. Timberlake believes he needs this information in disability cases because people who have only a high school education arent going to be able to get a sit down job. Dr. Timberlake is making a judgment call that if you have a particular back problem and a college degree, youre not disabled. Without the degree, you are. Over and over again, Id listen to someones story of how back pain meant they could no longer work, or how a shoulder injury had put them out of a job. Then I would ask What about a job where you dont have to lift things, or a job where you dont have to use your shoulder, or a job where you can sit down They would look at me as if I were asking, How come you didnt consider becoming an astronautOne woman I met, Ethel Thomas, is on disability for back pain after working many years at the fish plant, and then as a nurses aide. When I asked her what job she would have in her dream world, she told me she would be the woman at the Social Security office who weeds through disability applications. I figured she said this because she thought shed be good at weeding out the cheaters. But that wasnt it. She said she wanted this job because it is the only job shes seen where you get to sit all day. At first, I found this hard to believe. But then I started looking around town. Theres the Mc. Donalds, the fish plant, the truck repair shop. I went down a list of job openings Occupational Therapist, Mc. Donalds, Mc. Donalds, Truck Driver heavy lifting, KFC, Registered Nurse, Mc. Donalds. I actually think it might be possible that Ethel could not conceive of a job that would accommodate her pain. Were Just Hiding You GuysTheres a story we hear all the time these days that doesnt, on its face, seem to have anything to do with disability Local Mill Shuts Down. Or, maybe Factory To Close. Four years ago, when I was working as a reporter in Seattle, I did that story. I stood with workers in a dead mill in Aberdeen, Washington and memorialized the era when you could graduate from high school and get a job at a mill and live a good life. That was the end of the story. But after I got interested in disability, I followed up with some of the guys to see what happened to them after the mill closed. One of them, Scott Birdsall, went to lots of meetings where he learned about retraining programs and educational opportunities. At one meeting, he says, a staff member pulled him aside. Scotty, Im gonna be honest with you, the guy told him. Theres nobody gonna hire you. Were just hiding you guys. The staff members advice to Scott was blunt Just suck all the benefits you can out of the system until everything is gone, and then youre on your own. Scott, who was 5. There used to be a lot of jobs that you could do with just a high school degree, and that paid enough to be considered middle class.