Goldman H H, Gattozzi A A
University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Milbank Q. 1988;66(3):531-51.
Concern about costs in the early 1980s led both Congress and the newly installed Reagan administration to initiate an intensive review of eligibility for disability benefits under the Social Security system. Within a year it became apparent that a high percentage of mentally disabled were being declared ineligible. Much of the problem derived from the use of outdated criteria to determine mental disability. After a protracted struggle, the executive branch yielded to pressure from various advocacy groups, as well as the judiciary and legislative branches, and began to revise the criteria on the basis of contemporary psychiatric and rehabilitation standards.
20世纪80年代初对成本的担忧促使国会和新上任的里根政府对社会保障系统下的残疾福利资格进行了深入审查。不到一年，情况就变得明显起来，即有很大比例的精神残疾者被宣布没有资格。问题的很大一部分源于使用过时的标准来判定精神残疾。经过长期斗争，行政部门在各种倡导团体以及司法和立法部门的压力下做出让步，开始根据当代精神病学和康复标准修订标准。
