Ch 18 (Social Safety Nets)

• Medicare

Federal health insurance program for the elderly & disabled

• New Deal

President Franklin Roosevelt's programs for economic recovery, income support, and business regulation during the Great Depression

• Welfare state

a govt with a broad set of safety net programs

• Market economy

another term for capitalism

• Cost-of-living adjustment (COLA)

automatic annual adjustment made to Social Security benefits

• Entitlements

govt benefits that are distributed automatically to citizens who qualify on the basis of a set of guidelines set by law; for example, Americans over the age of 65 are entitled to Medicare coverage

• Safety nets

govt programs that protect the minimum standard of living of families & individuals against loss of income

• Social insurance

govt programs that provide services or income support in proportion to the amount of mandatory contributions made by individuals to a govt trust fund

• Means-tested

meeting the criterion of demonstratable need

• Medicaid

program administered by the states that pays for health care services for the poor; jointly funded by the federal govt & the states

• Unemployment insurance

program funded by taxes on employers to provide short-term income support to laid-off workers; also called unemployment compensation

• Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

program that pays for health care services for children in households above the poverty line but below 133-400% of the poverty line, depending on the state

• Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF)

program that provides income & services to many poor families; has benefit time limits and a work requirement

• Public assistance

programs funded by general tax funds that provide money or services for the poor

• Social Security

social insurance program that provides income support for the elderly, those with disabilities, and family survivors of working Americans

• Health savings accounts (HSAs)

tax-exempt savings accounts used for paying medical expenses

• Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

the federal entitlement program that provided income support for poor families until it was replaced by TANF in 1996

• Poverty line

the federal govt's calculation of the amount of income families of various sizes need to stay out of poverty

• Great Depression

the period of economic crisis in the US that lasted from the stock market crash of 1929 to America's entry into WWII