A person is more likely

Answer choices

1. A

   No Impact7% picked this

   The treatment of newly incurred disabilities is more successful now than in the past in restoring partial function in the

   This applies to all age groups uniformly. Whether you're 55, 65, or 75 years old, if you have a newly incurred disability, you'll be somewhat back to normal sooner than before. That doesn't give us a way to explain why a higher % of 55 year olds get disability benefits than do 75 year olds.

   7%
2. B

   No Distinction / Too Weak11% picked this

   Some people receive disability benefit payments under employers’ insurance plans, and some receive them

   This is super weak and super vague. It says, "at least one person gets disability payment from their employer and at least one person gets a disability payment from their government." This tells us nothing about the relative ages of these people and so it gives us no way to distinguish among the age groups and posit an alternate explanation for why a bigger share of 55 year olds get disability payments than do 75 year olds.

   11%
3. C

   No Distinction3% picked this

   Medical advances have prolonged the average lifespan beyond what it was

   This applies to all age groups uniformly. Whether you're 55, 65, or 75 years old, medical advances are going to help you live longer than you used to be able to. That doesn't give us a way to explain why a higher % of 55 year olds get disability benefits than do 75 year olds.

   3%
4. D

   No Distinction7% picked this

   For persons receiving disability benefit payments, those payments on average represent a smaller share of their predisability income now than was

   This applies to all age groups uniformly. Whether you're 55, 65, or 75 years old, if you receive disability payments, they don't pay out as much (as a proportion of your earning potential) as they used to. That doesn't give us a way to explain why a higher % of 55 year olds get disability benefits than do 75 year olds.

   7%
5. E

   Correct71% picked this

   Under most employers’ plans, disability benefit payments stop when an employee with a disability reaches the usual

   Why this is right

   This gives us an additional way to explain why a higher % of 55 year olds get disability benefits than do 75 year olds. A 55 year old wouldn't usually be retired. A 75 year old usually would. Disability payments stop once you hit age 65, so the disabled 55 year old would still be collecting payments whereas the disabled 75 year old would not any longer be receiving payments. Thus, this gives us a way to partially explain why only 1% of 75 year olds get disability payments, while 4% of 55 year olds do. There might be a higher percent of 75 year olds who are actually disabled, but since most employer plans cut out the payments once you turn 65, they are disabled but not receiving disability payments. (If people were worried about how this answer doesn't seem to perfectly explain the 55 vs. 65 vs. 75 gradient, it doesn't need to. If it even partially explains the gradient, then it succeeds in showing that the author's explanation was incomplete. As long as we think this answer has any effect on the 4% / 2% / 1% breakdown between 55/65/75 year olds, then it's part of the explanation).

   Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   71%