scholarly journals The Social Security Program in the United States

1965 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 652
Author(s):  
Kailin Tuan ◽  
Charles I. Schottland
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
The Social

The Social Security Program of the United States

1936 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph P. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Old Age ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Security ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
Unemployment Compensation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Old Age Assistance ◽  
State Unemployment

The Federal Social Security Act, which may be regarded as the central core of the social security program, is an omnibus act, containing the following features: (1) a national, compulsory oldage insurance plan, covering all employees except certain exempted groups; (2) two measures designed to stimulate the states to enact state unemployment compensation laws, namely, (a) a uniform nation-wide tax upon employers, against which a credit is allowable for contributions made to approved state unemployment compensation plans, and (b) subsidies to the states to cover the administrative costs of unemployment compensation; and (3) grants-in-aid to the states for old-age assistance, pensions for the blind, aid to dependent children, child welfare, maternal and child health, vocational rehabilitation, and public health activities. It is estimated that each of the two forms of social insurance will apply to about 25,000,000 wage-earners, and, when the maximum rates become effective in 1949, will involve annual contributions of nearly $3,000,000,000. This amount is approximately equal to the normal annual expenditure of the federal government prior to 1930. In addition, the grants-in-aid to the states were estimated by the actuaries of the President's Committee on Economic Security to reach a total of a half-billion dollars annually within a few years.History of the Federal ActWhen, in a message to Congress on June 8, 1934, the President indicated that he would submit a program of social insurance for consideration at the following session, the Wagner-Lewis unemployment insurance bill and the Dill-Connery old-age assistance bill were pending. Shortly afterwards, the President, by executive order, created the Committee on Economic Security, consisting of the Secretaries of Labor (chairman), Treasury, and Agriculture, the Attorney-General, and the Federal Emergency Relief Administrator. This committee appointed Professor Edwin E. Witte, of the University of Wisconsin, as executive director, and proceeded to build up a staff of actuaries and experts to study the whole problem of economic insecurity, and to prepare recommendations.

The Social Security Program and the Private Sector Alternative: Lessons from History

1987 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 239-246
Author(s):  
Jill Quadagno
Keyword(s):  
Social Security ◽  
Private Sector ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Security Program ◽  
Old Age Security ◽  
Social Security Fund ◽  
The Social ◽  
Security Fund ◽  
Older Citizens ◽  
Relationship Of

As the Social Security program in the United States emerged from the crisis of the 1970s with a solid set of reforms intended to guarantee the program's financial solvency into the twenty-first century, a new attack on the system arose in the form of debates centering around the relationship of the Social Security fund to the federal deficit. Conservative economists used concerns about the national economy as fuel for their own arguments that Social Security has negatively affected the economy and that heavier reliance should be placed on private sector benefits. This paper uses historical evidence to analyze how adequately private sector benefits functioned in the past. Among the conclusions reached are that the private sector failed to provide adequate protection for older citizens, and that benefits were inequitably distributed on the basis of gender and social class. Any tendency toward heavier reliance on the private sector for provisions for old age security would only exacerbate existing inequalities.

Michigan Court Enjoins Statute Limiting Abortions Covered by Medicaid

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-75
Author(s):  
A.S.
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Medicaid Program ◽  
Planned Parenthood ◽  
Court Of Appeals ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Federal Appropriations

In Planned Parenthood Affiliates of Michigan v. Engler (73 F.3d 634 (6th Cir. 1996)), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that § 400.109(a) of the Social Welfare Act of Michigan (Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 400.109(a) (1994)) impermissibly conflicts with the Medicaid Act (Social Security Act tit. XIX, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1396 et seq. (1988)) as modified by the 1994 Hyde Amendment (Pub. L. No. 103-112, § 509, 107 Stat. 1082-1113 (1994)), insofar as the § 400.109(a) only provides state funding for abortions necessary to save the life of a mother, and not for abortions resulting from rape or incest. The court held that the Hyde Amendment defines medically necessary abortions that must be funded by states participating in the federal Medicaid program, and that the amendment is not merely a federal appropriations bill.

scholarly journals The Health Insurance Exchange: An Oligopolistic Market In Need Of Reform

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 569
Author(s):  
Wali I. Mondal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Health Insurance ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Affordable Care Act ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
For Profit ◽  
Universal Healthcare ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act

<p>Until the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act commonly known as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law in March 2010, United States was the only industrialized rich country in the world without a universal healthcare insurance coverage. While pioneering works by Burns (1956, 1966) focused on the Social Security Act of 1935 in addressing the health insurance needs of U.S. retired population through Medicare, and later Medicaid was created by the Social Security Amendments of 1965, U.S. health insurance has remained a private, for-profit venture. The passage of ACA was one of the most contentious legislations of modern times. Soon after it was signed into law, various groups of private citizens and a number of States challenged some provisions of the ACA; however, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld its key provisions. A segment of the Congress remains opposed to the ACA on ideological ground and continues to challenge it with a variety of legal maneuvers. Notwithstanding the political or ideological arguments for or against the ACA, the objective of this paper is to analyze the competitiveness of the health insurance marketplace which opened on October 1, 2013. In doing so, the paper will address the structure of the health insurance exchange and suggest ways and means to make it more competitive.</p>

Planning for the optimal mix of paygo tax and funded savings

2006 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
GEORGES DE MENIL ◽  
FABRICE MURTIN ◽  
EYTAN SHESHINSKI
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Security ◽  
Relative Rate ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Data ◽  
Labor Earnings ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Optimal Mix ◽  
The Uk

We analyze the optimal balance between social security taxation and private saving in the provision of retirement income in dynamically efficient economies, a question at the center of policy debates in Europe and the United States. We consider the relative importance for this question of the return to capital, the internal return of the pay-as-you-go system, and the variabilities and correlation (or independence) of labor earnings and the capital return. We analyse these influences theoretically in the context of a two-period, overlapping generations model with uncertainty. We use a new method to calibrate the model using annual data on GDP per worker and the total real return on equities, from 1950 to 2002, from which we infer the stochastic characteristics of lifetime labor income and the return to lifetime savings in the US, UK, France and Japan. We obtain a range of optimal, steady-state values of the social security tax and the rate of lifetime savings. When the relative rate of risk aversion is assumed to be 2.5, the computed optimal tax varies from 5% in the United States to 22% in Japan. France is similar to Japan, and the UK is in between.

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