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