18 Look again at press releases a, b and c. How would you fully express the following word combinations? Which words have been left out?
World ..... Health Day
Family Planning and ..... Health
the SOS High School Suicide ..... Program
the Substance ..... and Mental Health ..... Administration
U. S. Department of Health and Human …..
19 Match the adjectives with the nouns.
promising dramatic depressed
global medical ongoing
domestic reproductive executive
a) .... students b) …. program c) …. education d) …. Violence
e) …. increase f) …. care g) …. director h) …. health
i) …. services
20 Choose one of the projects described in Exercise 17 and write a summary of the project.
Evaluation
What have you done in this unit?
What have you learnt from it?
What did you enjoy about it?
Have you any criticisms of it?
Have you any recommendations or suggestions for doing it differently?
Social Security Policy
Never for the sake of peace and quiet deny your convictions.
Hammarskjold, Dag; 1905-1961,
Swedish Statesman, Secretary-general of U.N.
……………………………………………………………………………………………….
1 What does the phrase “social security policy” mean? Give your own explanation.
2 What are the main branches of Social Security Policy? Fill in the scheme below and discuss your answers within your group.
3
Make
comments on the quotation given at the beginning of the unit.
4 Read the text about the Social Security Policy in the USA and be ready to complete the tasks which follow.
The Politics of Reforming Social Security
Why is Social Security on the agenda for the first time in fifteen years? Why are policy makers considering modifying or replacing the program? Social Security was once such a regular item on the governmental agenda that no detailed explanation was really required. Between 1935 and 1973 Congress and the President enacted twenty-five Social Security laws – more than one bill every two years – as they transformed a relatively small retirement program, with initial tax rates of one percent each on employees and employers, into the mature program we know today, with tax rates of 6.2 percent. During the final six years of this period, Social Security was constantly on the agenda, as Congress and the President responded to unusually high inflation by raising benefits seven times. Finally, in 1972, they placed Social Security on automatic pilot by enacting a provision that each year adjusts the wage base for changes in average wages and retirement benefits for changes in the consumer price index.
The 1972 law essentially removed Social Security from the regular governmental agenda. The program had reached maturity, and particularly as the economy stalled, there were no further pressures to expand it. Although insulated from inflation, Social Security was still vulnerable to other economic shocks and to long-term demographic changes. Social Security has returned to the governmental agenda only twice since 1972, each time because of actuarial imbalances. It first returned in 1975, after actuaries calculated that the program was facing a deficit within three years. The sources of the problem were two: some mistakes in drafting the original adjustment formula, which overcompensated for inflation, and economic stagnation which reduced revenues below their projections. After two years of debate, Congress and the President enacted a 1977 bill that phased in tax increases and recalibrated the inflation adjustment.
(Douglas, A.R.., (1998)).
