Other, general social insurance

Kathryn Edwards is an Associate Economist at the RAND Corporation. She is a member of the 2019 Conference Planning Committee. After working as a research assistant at the Economic Policy Institute from 2008-2011, Ms. Edwards attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she received her Ph.D. in Economics. Along the way, Edwards was a graduate fellow of the Institute for Research on Poverty and a summer fellow at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

As a result of this November’s midterm elections, key leadership in the U.S. House of Representatives will shift from Republican to Democratic control. This transition may augur a potential for different approaches to legislation aimed at strengthening the nation’s social insurance infrastructure. Newly elected officials might consider policy options to address economic insecurity and mitigate economic inequality, as well as uninsured risks and other major gaps generated by the changing nature of work.

New House Leaders

The change in control will mean new leadership for the House Committees and Subcommittees with jurisdiction over social insurance programs. New leaders may include (as of Nov. 14):

As the Academy gears up for our 31^st annual policy conference, Regenerating Social Insurance for Millennials and the Millennium, I am thinking back to what we have learned from our last few conferences.

Our 2016 conference premiered the Academy’s focus on inequality. Keynote speaker Marc Pearson, Deputy Director of Employment, Labor and Social Affairs at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), reminded us that:

In a recent article in Governing, J.B. Wogan asks, “Is it time to stop saying ‘Safety Net?’” 

He reports that several national groups representing public agencies and non-profits that administer food, housing, and health care benefit programs have stopped using the term “safety net” to describe these programs. He notes that “(d)ropping the term safety net is part of the human services groups' broader strategy to get the public and policymakers to think of human services as investments in the community that boost the economy, reduce crime and improve public health.”

On October 16, 2017, Members of the National Academy of Social Insurance, as well as other experts and supporters, gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts to discuss our nation’s social insurance programs and how they are addressing – and could better address – the challenges posed by growing inequality.

The Academy’s Board Chair, Bill Rodgers, Professor of Public Policy and Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, sat down with Professor Larry Summers for a fireside-style chat.