Brief Timeline of the 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
  • Social Security Retirement 
    • Government-run, compulsory old-age pension program
    • Funded by employer and employee paid payroll taxes (FICA)
    • FDR (New Deal)
  • Unemployment Insurance
    • Federal-state unemployment insurance
    • Funded by federal and state employer-paid payroll taxes (FUTA, SUTA)
    • FDR
  • Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)
    • Government-run, compulsory long-term disability insurance
    • Funded by employer and employee paid payroll taxes (FICA)
    • 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
    • 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
    • FYI, Medicare is a great deal for recipients
    • 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
    • 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.
    • 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
    • LBJ (Great Society) and Jimmy Carter
  • Earned Income Tax Credit
    • Federal refundable tax credit for low- to moderate-income working individuals and couples, particularly those with children. 
    • 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.
    • Bill Clinton
  • Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
    • Social welfare program providing temporary cash assistance to extremely poor families with dependent children.
    • Bill Clinton
  • Medicare Part C (Advantage)
    • Managed care programs, run by private insurance companies approved and subsidized by Medicare. 
    • 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
    • George W Bush (Compassionate Conservatism)
  • Affordable Care Act (ACA, Obamacare)
    • Healthcare package that does many things
    • Funded in many ways
    • Barack Obama