An Overview of the Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
Since 1935 Social Security has been the foundation of economic security for America's workers, retirees and their families. This fundamental program provides benefits for million of people, including retirees, disabled workers and the families of deceased workers. Social Security is a financially sound program, with a current surplus of billions a year. Moreover Medicare is a social insurance program that has provided guaranteed health insurance to millions of older and disabled Americans since it was established in 1965. The social Security started as an anti-poverty program created to alleviate the impact of the Great Depression during the 1930s. President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared to the Congress his intentions to create a program for Social Security on June 8, 1934. The Social Security Act was signed on August 14, 1935, it was a social insurance intended to pay retired workers age 65 an older an ongoing income after retirement. The program began paying pension benefits in 1937. More than 35 million Social Security Cards were issued during 1936 and 1937 (2Facts 2-3). .
In 1939 two new categories were added to the Social Security. Since the original act only covered retirement benefits to workers; the 1939 Amendments benefit with payments to the spouse and minor children of the retired worker called the dependents benefits and in the case of premature death of the worker the survivor benefits were paid to the family. There were no changes in Social Security until 1950. Benefits were very low so that during that year major amendments were created in order to raised the benefits and make this program on the way to the extended coverage that has today. Moreover, is hard to look at Social Security without looking at the annual increases in benefits called Cost-of-Living Adjustments (COLAs) to balance the effects of inflation on fixed incomes that the Congress legislated in 1950 to a 77% when ever they considered necessary.
