Prior to beginning work on this discussion, refer to your course text Chapter 3 and these websites: Programs for Seniors, Help for Families, What We Do, About VA, About Us, What Is the Difference Between Medicare and Medicaid?, and Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). Then discuss what you regard as the three most significant welfare programs or policies in the American human services system and describe how they have changed how people have been helped over the course of time. Think about the many programs available for older adults, those who need financial assistance, children, and veterans: What would we do without them? Consider how effective are policies for social security benefits, medical care, and food vouchers. Do they successfully assist people? Why or why not?
Guided Response: Review several of your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of your peers by 11:59 p.m. on Day 7 of the week. You are encouraged to post your required replies earlier in the week to promote more meaningful and interactive discourse in this discussion.
Examine your classmates’ selections for the three most significant welfare programs or policies in the American human services system. Do you agree or disagree with these selections? What are your reactions to your classmates’ conclusions about how effective the policies are for social security benefits, medical care, and food vouchers? Do you agree or disagree? What alternative thoughts would you share? Support your thoughts with evidence from the required readings. Continue to monitor the discussion forum until Day 7 of the week and respond to anyone who replies to your initial post.
Replies
Feteke Coulibaly
Oct 27, 2021 at 2:52 PM
The three most significant welfare programs to my opinion are Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP and Veterans Assistance. Over the years Medicaid has grown subsequently and have helped millions of people. The program was made for families of low income and is designed to have those family pay little to no copay for medical services. From 1977 all the way up to 1997, Medicare has helped about 13.5 million of people. (Provost & Hughes, 2000)
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program was designed to eradicate hunger and malnutrition and provide adequate nutrition and diet by supplementing families with additional income to meet those ends. Over the years the program has went through major renovation as legislation decided to change up the eligibility for maximum reward of food stamp. Reward for food stamps is dependent on the family income. A family with zero income is eligible with 100% of the benefits. The changes made was to give the states more administrative over and removing immigrants or non-legal citizens to be able to be eligible for the program. (Caswell, 2013)
The Veteran’s Assistance was created to help service members transition into civilian life. Over the years the VA has improved tremendously in helping veterans’ quality of life. The introduction of the GI bill, home loans as well as employment assistance has made a great difference in quality of life for transitioning service members. (Adler, 27 September 2017)
In today’s life, the absence of human service programs would create a great imbalance in the United States. The mortality rate would increase due to the lack of access to medical facility, funds to purchase food and shelter and an increase in crime. There will not be enough jobs available to cover the millions of people that need the programs not even mentioning individuals with mental disability, older population and children.
I personally feel like the policies for social security benefits, medical care and food vouchers needs to be updated every year to match the social economy. As we are moving forward the cost of living is increasing as well as food and medical coverage. For example, if 100$ was used to purchase groceries 2 years ago, this same 100$ value has decreased and may not be enough to cover the necessity for a proper nutritional meal.
References:
Adler, J. L. (n.d.). The evolution of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Scholars Strategy Network. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://scholars.org/contribution/evolution-us-department-veterans-affairs.
Caswell, J. A. (2013, April 23). History, background, and goals of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program: Examining the Evidence to Define Benefit Adequacy. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK206907/.
Provost, C., & Hughes, P. (2000). Medicaid: 35 years of Service. Health care financing review. Retrieved October 27, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4194689/.
adrijah Smith
Oct 27, 2021 at 3:59 PM
Three of the most significant welfare programs are Medicaid, SNAP, and TANF. Medicaid is an assistance program. It serves low-income persons of every age. Patients usually pay no part costs for covered medicaid expenses. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) provides nutrition benefits to supplement the food budget of needy families so they can purchase healthy food and move forward self-sufficiency. TANF is temporary assistance for needy families. Most people that are on TANF are the low-income based families. Human services have drastically changed overtime. In the beginning there were only almshouses but now there are so many more programs that are available for children, elderly, veterans, the disabled, and low-income persons. Without these programs for those in need, there would be more homeless people and people dying from sickness that they cannot afford to get checked out. In my opinion, these programs do successfully assist people.
