Social Insurance: America's Neglected Heritage and Contested Future
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The American “System of Health:” a July 4th Reckoning and a Way Forward
These are times for great humility. Ours has been revealed as a society unwilling to prepare for a long predicted deadly storm. When it came, we sent our healthcare providers into the battle without armor. Neither our public, private, nor non-profit sectors could produce and administer the tests we needed to identify the scale of the invasion.
Senator Lindsey Graham: An Apology and a Common Sense Proposal for CARES II
My May 13th post drew some fire. I pointed out the incongruity in Senator Lindsey Graham being thankful for the generous Social Security Survivor Benefits his family received and his unwillingness to support the extension of pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) for America’s 35M newly unemployed workers. Some of you pointed out correctly that Senator Graham did not oppose UI itself, but rather the $600 per week “pandemic” unemployment benefit added to the joint federal/state program through July. (Congress unanimously approved and President Trump signed the UI enhancements into law under the omnibus $2T Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on March 27th.) I apologize for not pointing out that Senator Graham voted for the CARES Act. I am sorry as well for not de
Senator Lindsey Graham, Survivor Benefits and Dead Bodies
While a college student, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham suffered the loss of his parents within a year of one another. His parents held no life insurance, but Social Security, it turns out, is America’s biggest life insurance policy. The program paid monthly benefits for the care of his younger sister until she reached adulthood. “As a 22-year-old college student with a 13–year-old sister to raise,” Graham humbly recalled, “survivor benefits meant the world to me and our family.”
The Social Security Act of 1935 also led to the creation of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program, a joint federal-state initiative to support those laid off from work. Today, many but not all of America’s 30+ million newly unemployed qualify for weekly payments from UI.
Joe Burrow, Food Banks and Food Stamps (SNAP)
On April 23rd, the Cincinnati Bengals selected Joe Burrow with the first pick in the NFL draft. In December, Mr. Burrow touched the nation when he used his Heisman Trophy acceptance speech to call attention to serious food problems in his hometown of Athens, Ohio.
“There’s so many people there that don’t have a lot,” he reminded the nation, “and I’m up here for all those kids in Athens and Athens County that go home to not a lot of food on the table, hungry after school.” Within days, contributions in excess of $500,000 poured into the Athens County food pantry.
Unemployment Insurance during the Great Recession
On Thursday, we shared with a Yale Law School audience this short passage from our book about the performance of Unemployment Insurance during The Great Recession:
“Between March and November of 2008, one titan of American finance after another—Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Countrywide—collapsed outright, fell into government receivership, or was acquired by a competitor at a bargain-basement price. Panic reigned in financial markets. Stock prices swooned. Debt markets seized up. Lending for home mortgages slowed from a torrent to a trickle.
About John Pakutka
John Pakutka leads The Crescent Group, a heathcare advisory services firm. Clients include digital health companies, non-profit healthcare systems, investment firms, Fortune 500 companies, Global 100 law firms and the U.S. Department of Justice. John completed earlier career stints at Exxon, the United States GAO, Yale, and APM/Computer Sciences Corporation. He has served on numerous boards and commissions, most recently the Connecticut Healthcare Affordability Standard Advisory Committee, and is a grant reader for The Donaghue Foundation. Educated at Cornell and Yale, John led in 2014 the 1-credit reading group "Innovation in Health and Healthcare" at the Yale Law School.
About John Pakutka
John Pakutka is co-author with Ted Marmor and Jerry Mashaw of Social Insurance: America’s Neglected Heritage and Contested Future. He is the Managing Director of The Crescent Group, an advisory services firm with expertise in healthcare management, policy and litigation.
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