Because the residents of a country must have the security they need in terms of basic needs and healthcare, access to free food, retirement plans, and health plans must be facilitated by governments all over the world. For that reason, institutions like Canada Pension Plan and U.S. Social Security exist.
In addition to those, there are also other groups like WIC and Medicare/Medicaid that can provide benefits for the less fortunate, as well as the middle-class people. Such things are the main focus of this article.
Free Food and Social Security: The Crucial Differences
Popularly known by the acronym SNAP, it is a program administered by the US government to provide low-cost food for people with very little income, or no income at all.
As a Federal-aid initiative, it offers benefits that are distributed by specific divisions of the US States that include: Division of Social Services, Department of Health and Human Services, etc. For the time being, there is no known Canadian counterpart for SNAP, although intensive debates and discussions about the matter have been going on for quite some time already.
Now, let’s compare the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and U.S. Social Security. Their major similarity is that both of them are retirement income schemes sponsored by their respective governments. As a much younger system, CPP is one of the three levels of the Canadian retirement programs.
Social Security on the other hand was founded in 1935. Most US citizens are obliged to pay their dues to Social Security regardless of the age bracket where they belong. However, exemptions may be given to selected groups of taxpayers.
Since the inception of either system, they have been giving benefits to the residents of their respective countries. Such benefits include retirement pension, post-retirement benefit, disability benefits, survivor's pension, and children's benefits.
Though both the CPP and the US Social Security are very established systems already, they are both facing huge problems that when not rectified strategically, could lead to devastating scenarios in the next decades. For instance, there is the problem of the “early-retirement fad” that’s been going on in recent years. As early as 55 or even 50, some workers in both The US and Canada are already retiring.
One problem that could sprout from this is that there are not enough rising members of the future workforce that can replace those retirees. But the real major problem is how the government might allocate funds to cater to those people once they start relaxing in their homes or on vacations as they enjoy their retirement.
Canadian and American Benefits In Comparison Over The Years
One of the biggest challenges that both institutions will be facing is the rising life expectancy of the elderly in this present generation. It is known that during the mid-1960s, an average adult has a life expectancy of about 70 years in the US. But just around a decade ago, the figure has risen to around 79-80 years.
The longevity of life expectancy among senior people is due to health awareness programs, and access to better healthcare facilities. When people are living longer than ever, it means that the government would have to raise funds to sustain them for an extended number of years too. That in itself is a huge problem already.
Such a problem must be defined and addressed by any government, even those outside the US and Canadian borders. Whenever problems of any kind arise within beneficiary programs like CPP, the US Social Security, and even in healthcare programs like Medicare/Medicaid and Obamacare, there are huge aspects of it that put the government on the losing side.
The governing entities of a country may hold the biggest chunks of power and authority, but being in such a position only means that they also have the heaviest of the responsibilities. Providing funds to spend on the retirees, the sick, the orphans, and other similar categories is never an easy task.
But if we weigh things down carefully, the ones that are truly on the losing side are the ordinary citizens – the ones who have worked hard for many years of their lives who are expecting to get the amount due them, when their retirement phase finally arrives. Furthermore, the retirement of those people is not the only issue, but also the allocation of funds to those who depend on them – their children and their beneficiaries.
Problems That Both SSS And CPP Are Facing
Because problems that pertain to early retirement and extended life expectancy is already here, the need to address it should be among the top priority. In facing the first problem, the government has mandated the Social Security System to reduce someone’s benefit by 5/9 of 1% for each month, before the employee reaches the full retirement age. If the person decides to retire more than 36 months early, his or her benefit plan will be reduced by another 5/12 of 1% per exceeding month.
Such a policy seems to be a fair one. But in terms of the life expectancy problem, there seems to be no major policy that addresses it yet. The reason for that is mainly due to the ever-changing nature of health findings and studies. One fact today could change literally in the next few months. It will be harder and harder for lawmakers to come up with a solid verdict because technology is constantly giving new updates pertaining to the understanding of the human anatomy.
Since The US Social Security System and CPP have been running for many decades already, they have been known to establish the equity principle, though there were variations on the implementation of it periodically. While the methods they employ might not be perfect, they have managed to stay solid for the duration of their lifespan.
In spite of the problems that institutions like The CPP and The US Social Security have faced and handled throughout the years, they have both did good jobs in taking care of the citizens of the countries they serve from a general perspective.
So mas gamhanan ang Canada kaysa USA?