social insurance

Examples of social insurance in the following topics:

• The Elderly

  • Within the United States, senior citizens are at the center of several social policy issues, most prominently Social Security and Medicare.
  • Social security is a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits.
  • Roosevelt's "New Deal. " Social Security is currently the largest social welfare program in the United States, constituting 37% of government expenditure and 7% of GDP.
  • In 1965, Congress created Medicare under Title XVIII of the Social Security Act to provide health insurance to people age 65 and older, regardless of income or medical history.
  • Thus, it has a somewhat different social role from for-profit private insurers, which manage their risk portfolio by adjusting their pricing according to perceived risk.

• Medicaid and Medicare

  • Medicare is a national social insurance program, administered by the U.S. federal government since 1965.
  • Medicare has a different social role from for-profit private insurers, which manage their risk portfolio to maximize profitability by denying coverage to those they anticipate will need it.
  • As a social insurance program, Medicare spreads the financial risk associated with illness across society in order to protect everyone.
  • As a result, it is a form of social insurance that makes it feasible for people to pay for insurance for sickness in old age.
  • Compare and contrast Medicaid and Medicare as social programs provided by the U.S. government

• Income Security Policy and Policy Making

  • While assistance is often in the form of financial payments, those eligible for social welfare can usually access health and educational services free of charge.
  • The amount of support is enough to cover basic needs and eligibility is often subject to a comprehensive and complex assessment of an applicant's social and financial situation.
  • Some schemes are based on the discretion of an official, such as a social worker.
  • Adverse selection causes profit maximizing private insurance agencies to set high premiums for the insurance because there is a high likelihood they will have to make payments to the policyholder.
  • High premiums exclude many individuals who otherwise might purchase the insurance.

• History of the Welfare State

  • A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens.
  • The general term may cover a variety of forms of economic and social organization. "
  • Bismarck introduced old age pensions, accident insurance and medical care that formed the basis of the modern European welfare state.
  • The development of social insurance in Germany under Bismarck was particularly influential.
  • The term was not, however, applied to all states offering social protection.

• Social Regulation

  • Social policy refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare.
  • Social policy primarily refers to guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare.
  • Social policy aims to improve human welfare and to meet human needs for education, health, housing and social security.
  • Important areas of social policy are the welfare state, social security, unemployment insurance, environmental policy, pensions, health care, social housing, social care, child protection, social exclusion, education policy, crime, and criminal justice.
  • The term 'social policy' can also refer to policies which govern human behavior.

• The New Deal

  • Before the New Deal, deposits at banks were not insured against loss.
  • There was no national safety net, no public unemployment insurance, and no Social Security.
  • It also marked the beginning of complex social programs and the growing power of labor unions.

• Health Care Policy

  • Most of the population under 65 is insured by his/her or a family member's employer, some buy health insurance on their own, and the remainder are uninsured.
  • It mandates that all residents who can afford to purchase health insurance must do so, and it provides subsidized insurance plans so that nearly everyone can afford health insurance.
  • Opponents deride this type of system as socialized medicine, and it has not been one of the favored reform options by Congress or the President in both the Clinton and Obama reform efforts.
  • It has been pointed out that socialized medicine is a system in which the government owns the means of providing medicine.
  • Britain's health care system is an example of this socialized system, along with the Veterans Health Administration program in America.

• Universal Coverage

  • Universal healthcare--sometimes referred to as universal health coverage, universal coverage, universal care, or social health protection--usually refers to a healthcare system that provides healthcare and financial protection to all citizens.
  • Universal healthcare systems vary according to the extent of government involvement in providing care and/or health insurance.
  • In these countries, access is based on residence rights, and not on the purchase of insurance.
  • According to economist and former US Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich, only a "big, national, public option" can force insurance companies to cooperate, share information, and reduce costs.
  • Scattered, localized, "insurance cooperatives" are too small to do that and are "designed to fail" by the moneyed forces opposing Democratic healthcare reform.

• Major Life and Political Events

  • Parents appear to be a primary source of political socialization and partisanship.
  • Social groups are another source of partisanship.
  • That is, a person's attachment to a specific political ideology naturally grew stronger over time, as weak socialization became strong and strong socialization became stronger.
  • Additionally, theorists suggested that older voters favored certain policy preferences (such as strong government pensions and old-age health insurance) which led them to favor one party over another.
  • Explain how parents, social groups and major life events are sources for political socialization

• Promoting Public Welfare and Income Redistribution

  • Social welfare programs seek to provide basic social protections for all Americans.
  • This is primarily achieved through social service programing.
  • The gesture to improving the wellbeing of the public writ large is represented by President Obama's 2010 law to increase public access to health insurance.
  • This image from the 1930s depicts a poster promoting the new Social Security program.
  • Social Security exists to this day as a federal program to promote public welfare.