The administration within HEW which manages the social security program including Medicare, which is the responsibility of the SSA’s Bureau of Health Insurance. Since SSA is not under the direction of HEWs Assistant Secretary for Health, this means that Medicare is administered separately from the Department’s other health programs.
The federal government’s largest domestic program. Triggered by the economic crisis in the U.S. known as the Great Depression, the SSA began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1934 message to Congress that he intended to provide a program for “Social Security”. The resulting Social Security Act was signed into law on August 14,1935. It created an insurance program to pay retired workers age 65 or older a continuing income after retirement, as well as several other provisions related to the general welfare. The passage of the Act required a massive organizational effort that resulted in the issuance of 35 million Social Security Numbers (SSNs) within the next two years. Beginning in January 1937, after the SSNs were assigned, the first Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) taxes were collected. Since then, over 4 trillion dollars have been paid out of the special Trust Funds set up for the purpose. There is currently quite a bit of concern that these Trust Funds are being depleted more quickly than they are being filled, due to a number of economic and demographic trends.