Brief Timeline of U.S. Safety Net

  • Worker’s Compensation
    • State-administered, private insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured on the job in exchange for relinquishing the right to sue the employer for negligence. 
    • Funded by employer
    • Implemented by the states from 1911 to 1949
  • Social Security Retirement 
    • Government-run, compulsory old-age pension program
    • Funded by employer and employee paid payroll taxes (FICA)
    • 1935, FDR (New Deal)
  • Unemployment Insurance
    • Federal-state unemployment insurance
    • Funded by federal and state employer-paid payroll taxes (FUTA, SUTA)
    • 1935, FDR (New Deal)
  • Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
    • Government-run, compulsory long-term disability insurance
    • Funded by employer and employee paid payroll taxes (FICA)
    • 1954, Dwight D Eisenhower
  • Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
    • Social welfare program providing stipends to low-income people who are either aged 65 or older, blind, or disabled.
    • Funded by general tax revenues
    • 1972, Richard Nixon
  • Medicare Parts A & B
    • Compulsory, single-payer, national health insurance for the elderly
    • Funded by employer and employee paid payroll taxes (FICA), premiums, surtaxes on beneficiaries, and general tax revenues
    • 1965, LBJ (Great Society)
  • Medicaid
    • National health insurance for low-income people under age 65 and for those over 65 whose Medicare benefits have been exhausted
      • Nearly 60% of nursing home residents receive Medicaid
    • Funded by state and federal tax revenues
    • Managed by the states
    • 1965, LBJ (Great Society)
  • Head Start
    • Social welfare program providing comprehensive early childhood education, health, nutrition, and parent involvement services to low-income children and their families.
    • 1965, LBJ (Great Society)
  • Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
    • Federal social welfare program providing food-purchasing assistance for low- and no-income people
    • Formerly named the Food Stamp Program
    • Today’s recipients use EBT debit cards rather than stamps
    • 1964 LBJ (War on Poverty) and Jimmy Carter
  • Earned Income Tax Credit
    • Federal refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly those with children. 
    • 1975, Gerald Ford
  • Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
    • Social welfare program providing matching funds to states for health insurance to families with children whose incomes are modest but too high to qualify for Medicaid.
    • 1997, Bill Clinton
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
    • Social welfare program providing temporary cash assistance to extremely poor families with dependent children.
    • 1997, Bill Clinton
  • Medicare Part C (Advantage)
    • Managed care programs, run by private insurance companies approved and subsidized by Medicare. 
    • 1997, Bill Clinton
  • Medicare Part D (Prescription Drugs)
    • Social insurance program that
      • Regulates private prescription drug insurance plans for Medicare beneficiaries
      • Subsidizes the costs of prescription drugs and prescription drug insurance premiums for low-income Medicare beneficiaries.
    • Funded by general tax revenues
    • 2003, George W Bush (Compassionate Conservatism)
  • Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare)
    • Healthcare package that “included provisions that required most individuals to secure health insurance or pay fines, made coverage easier and less costly to obtain, cracked down on abusive insurance practices, and attempted to rein in the rising costs of health care.” (Britannica)
    • Funded in several ways
    • 2010, Barack Obama