We *paid* for Social Security & Medicare!
If anyone votes to take away or reduce our Social Security and/or Medicare, they'd better vote to give us refunds, or we'll vote their duffs out of office!!! This is how my husband, a retired CPA, describes these programs: Social Security is an annuity prepaid for by payroll deductions. Medicare is health insurance, the premiums for which are paid for by payroll deductions for Part A and deductions from one's Social Security income for Parts B and D.
posted by Shira Salamone at 11:03 PM
4 Comments:
Your husband's analysis is what most people believe, but is both legally and factually incorrect.
Spell it out, wiseguy! If you're going to contradict a CPA, you can't just say "he's wrong" and walk away. :(
Social Security and Medicare are part of the welfare state safety net, it's not like a prepaid annuity or heatlh insurance in any way. You pay it forward, not for yourselves. There's no account with your name on it and money allocated to you. And Medicare isn't your health insurance until you qualify. If you died before you qualified for it, you wouldn't get a refund on all the "premiums" as your husband described it. They're taxes. Not premiums. Every court case on the subject has made that clear.
I guess the main difference between Social Security and Medicare, as opposed to, say, Medicaid, SSI, and "welfare" is that Social Security is "earned" in the sense that you aren't eligible unless your earnings meet the minimum requirement, and Medicare comes out of your earnings, whereas Medicaid, SSI, and "welfare" are for people who don't meet minimum earnings requirements.
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