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Social Security

By Mary Jane Holt
Contributing Writer

For everything you ever thought about wanting to know about the history of Social Security and Medicare you must check out www.ssa.gov/history/history.html. Trust me, there is nothing known about Social Security that you will not find at this site. I actually spent hours perusing it this week. I got so tired of politicians and media types telling me what they want me to know that I set out in search of facts. Imagine that!

At this Web site I found an interesting brief history of SS along with absolutely staggering numbers. An in-depth agency history is there along with a FAQ section. Inner agency resources are listed along with outside sources including books of interest and related Web sites.

One could easily spend days at this Web site if one had such an inclination. I did not, but I did find two especially interesting areas that I want to tell you about this week. Under the Chronology of Social Security I found a detailed historical account of the development of social insurance, with particular emphasis on Social Security. It is noted that items included in this list are there on the basis of their significance for Social Security generally, their importance as precedents, their value in reflecting trends or issues, or their significance in SSA's administrative history. The information includes legislative events in Social Security and related programs.

As election day approaches, I invite you to visit this Web site. If you are only interested in presidential statements (including all made over the past four years by George W. Bush) regarding Social Security and Medicare, go directly to www.ssa.gov/history/presstmts.html.

Here are a few highlights from the Chronology of SS that I thought might interest you:

• 1789 - The Federal Government accepted the responsibility of providing pensions to disabled veterans of the Revolutionary War.

• 1793 - The first local health department with a permanent board of health was formed in Baltimore, Maryland.

• 1796 - The founding of the Boston Dispensary, Boston, Massachusetts, was the first organized medical care service in New England. This was the recognized forerunner of present day home care programs.

• 1855 - The Government Hospital for the Insane was established (later became St. Elizabeth's Hospital of Washington, D.C.)

• 1857 - The first municipal pension fund was established providing disability and death benefits for New York City police.

• 1875 - The first private pension plan in American industry was adopted by American Express. It provided benefits for employees 60 years of age or over who had 20 years service with the company and were incapacitated for further performance of duty.

• 1882 - The first major employee-sponsored mutual benefit association was established by the Northern Pacific Railway Beneficial Association which developed a program of complete medical care and other benefits financed by employer-employee payments.

• 1894 - The first statutory retirement system for teachers was adopted in New York City.

• 1896 - Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company became the first American life insurance organization to provide disability benefits.

• 1897 - The first State law to provide medical and surgical aid for crippled children was enacted by Minnesota.

• 1898 - The first State law in the USA providing pensions for the blind was enacted in Ohio.

• 1908 - A workmen's compensation system was established for civilian employees of the Federal Government.

• 1909 - A Conference on the Care of Dependent Children was held in Washington, D.C. at the invitation of President Theodore Roosevelt. This was the first of the White House Conferences on child welfare.

• 1911 - The first State laws for "mothers' aid" (forerunner of aid to dependent children were enacted in Missouri and Illinois.

• 1911- The first workmen's compensation law to be held constitutional was enacted in Wisconsin.

• 1915 - The first old-age pension legislation not challenged on the grounds of constitutionality was enacted in the Territory of Alaska.

• October, 1917 - The War Risk Insurance Act was passed. This legislation set up the first government life insurance program.

• 1917 - The first Federal legislation establishing grant-in-aid provisions for vocational education was enacted.

• 1917 - The first State Department of Welfare was established in Illinois.

• 1920 - A Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund was established for Federal employees.

• June, 1920 - The Vocational Rehabilitation Act (commonly called the Smith-Fess Act) was one of the first Federal grant-in-aid programs passed by Congress. It was originally conceived as a vocational training and counseling program for industrially-injured civilians. (The restoration of medical and physical ailments were not introduced as parts of this program until 1943.)

• 1920 - The American Medical Association made its first official declaration of opposition to any compulsory scheme of health insurance controlled by any State or the Federal Government.

• March 5, 1923 - Montana's Old-age Pension Law was enacted. It was the first such State law to withstand the test of constitutionality.

• 1923 - President Harding was unsuccessful in his attempt to establish a Department of Education in Welfare.

• 1927 - The Federal Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act set up a workmen's compensation program for certain maritime and related industries workers who could not be covered under State programs.

• 1927 - The Committee on the Costs of Medical Care (CCMC) was "organized to study the economic aspects of the prevention and care of sickness, including the adequacy, availability.

• 1929 - State laws for workmen's compensation were in effect in all but four States.

• July 21, 1930 - The Veterans Administration was established by Executive Order.

• March 4-June 16, 1933 - During the Franklin Roosevelt Administration's first "Hundred Days," Congress committed the country to extraordinary reforms with the Federal Government assuming responsibility for the welfare of millions of unemployed. The primary aim of all the legislation was recovery.

And that was just the BEGINNING of the mind-blowing social reforms that took place under Roosevelt’s watch. Now jump forward 30 years:

• Jan. 8, 1964 - In his message on the State of the Union, President Johnson declared "unconditional war on poverty in America."

• Jan. 7, 1965 - President Johnson's first legislative message to the 89th Congress, Advancing the Nation's Health, detailed a program including hospital insurance for the aged under Social Security and health care for needy children.

• Jan. 15, 1969 - President Johnson's budget proposed a minimum 10% increase in Social Security benefit payments for 1970..

• Jan. 1, 1971 - The 10 percent benefit increase became effective.

And the spending continued...

• Jan. 19, 1999 - In his State of the Union Address, President Clinton laid out his proposal to "Save Social Security First." He proposed transferring 62 percent of the unified budget surpluses to Social Security over the next 15 years; saving 15 percent of the surpluses to shore up Medicare; and investing 12 percent of the surpluses into new Universal Savings Accounts as additions to Social Security. He also called for repeal of the Retirement Earnings Test.

• May 2, 2001 - President Bush announced the appointment of a 16-member bi-partisan Commission on Social Security <http://www.ssa.gov/history/bushcommission.html> . The Commission has been tasked to develop a proposal to modernize and restore financial soundness to Social Security, according to the principles the President announced in his State-of-the-Union Address.

• Dec. 5, 2001 - The Senate passed a bill allowing $15 billion from the Railroad Retirement Fund to be invested in stocks and bonds and lowering payroll taxes and raising benefits in anticipation of the expected higher rate of return the stock market investments will yield. The Senate vote was 90 to 9 in favor of passage.

Now, who was that who said it is NOT all about the economy? I propose that waging war and fighting terrorism will only be a sideline activity for the winner of the upcoming presidential election. Let’s hope that winner has the courage to be more fiscally conservative.