- Unemployment insurance;
- Aid to the blind and "crippled children;"
- Aid to Dependent Children (later AFDC, aka "welfare");
- Public health.
Aug. 10, 1939: The Social Security Act Amendments of 1939 broadens the program to include benefits for dependents and survivors.
Jan. 31, 1940: Ida May Fuller becomes the first person to receive an old-age monthly benefit check. Nov. 19, 1945: In a special message to Congress, President Harry Truman proposes a comprehensive, prepaid medical insurance plan for all people through the Social Security system. Aug. 1, 1956: Congress amends the Social Security Act to provide monthly benefits to permanently and totally disabled workers ages 50 to 64 and for adult children of deceased or retired workers, if disabled before age 18.
June 20, 1960: In Flemming v. Nestor, the Supreme Court rules that individuals have no contractual right to Social Security benefits. June 30, 1961: JFK signs the Social Security Amendments of 1961, permitting all workers to elect reduced retirement at age 62.
July 1963: Mollie Orshansky publishes the first version of poverty thresholds, which would become the "poverty line." July 30, 1965: President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act Amendments of 1965 in the presence of Truman. The law establishes both Medicare and Medicaid.
August 8, 1969: Richard Nixon proposes the Family Assistance Plan, to provide needy families with an income floor. The measure eventually dies.
July 1, 1972: Nixon signs into law P.L. 92-336, which authorizes a 20 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective September 1972 and establishes the procedures for issuing automatic annual COLAs beginning in 1975. Jan. 1, 1974: The SSI program goes into operation as a result of the Social Security Amendments of 1972. March 9, 1977: HEW reorganization plan is published in the Federal Register, creating the Health Care Financing Administration to manage the Medicare and Medicaid programs. June 9, 1980: President Jimmy Carter signs the Social Security Amendments of 1980. Major provisions involve greater work incentives for disabled Social Security and SSI beneficiaries. Aug. 13, 1981: The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 makes major changes in Social Security, SSI and AFDC. These include a phasing out of students' benefits, stopping young parents' benefits when a child reaches 16, limiting the lump-sum death payment and changes in the minimum benefit. April 20, 1983: President Ronald Reagan signs into law the Social Security Amendments of 1983. The bill raises taxes and gradually increases the retirement age.June 6, 1986: Reagan signs the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) Act, which establishes Social Security coverage for federal employees hired after Dec. 31, 1983. July 1, 1988: Reagan signs the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act--the biggest expansion of Medicare since its introduction in 1965.
July 1, 1972: Nixon signs into law P.L. 92-336, which authorizes a 20 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) effective September 1972 and establishes the procedures for issuing automatic annual COLAs beginning in 1975. Jan. 1, 1974: The SSI program goes into operation as a result of the Social Security Amendments of 1972. March 9, 1977: HEW reorganization plan is published in the Federal Register, creating the Health Care Financing Administration to manage the Medicare and Medicaid programs. June 9, 1980: President Jimmy Carter signs the Social Security Amendments of 1980. Major provisions involve greater work incentives for disabled Social Security and SSI beneficiaries. Aug. 13, 1981: The Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1981 makes major changes in Social Security, SSI and AFDC. These include a phasing out of students' benefits, stopping young parents' benefits when a child reaches 16, limiting the lump-sum death payment and changes in the minimum benefit. April 20, 1983: President Ronald Reagan signs into law the Social Security Amendments of 1983. The bill raises taxes and gradually increases the retirement age.June 6, 1986: Reagan signs the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) Act, which establishes Social Security coverage for federal employees hired after Dec. 31, 1983. July 1, 1988: Reagan signs the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act--the biggest expansion of Medicare since its introduction in 1965.
August 18, 1989: A group of senior citizens, with the guidance of community organizer Jan Schakowsky, attacks Rep. Dan Rostenkowski to protest the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act.
December 12, 1989: President George H.W. Bush signs legislation repealing the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act.
Feb. 20, 1990: The Supreme Court holds in Sullivan vs. Zebley that substantial parts of the SSI regulation on determining disability for children are inconsistent with the Social Security Act. September 22, 1993: Bill Clinton proposes comprehensive health care reform. The bill dies the following year.
August 22, 1996: Clinton today signs a sweeping welfare reform bill that ends the open-ended guarantee of federal aid and shifts much of the responsibility for public assistance to the states.
March 31, 1995: SSA becomes an independent agency. Oct. 1, 1999: SSA begins its annual mailing of Social Security statements to all workers age 25 and over. December 8, 2003: President George W. Bush signs the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003.
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