Policy Makers Weigh in About Changes in Social Safety Net

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Leading experts will offer a policy briefing in Chicago about how the social safety net -- from welfare to Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare -- is being radically transformed at the same time that aging baby boomers are about to put unprecedented stress on society’s safeguards.

Hosted by the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, “The Evolution of the Social Safety Net: Change for the Better?,” will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 5, at the Kellogg School of Management, 340 E. Superior Street, 4th floor, Chicago.

Are the safety net programs for children, the poor and the aging living up to their potential? What do policy makers have to say about the rapidly changing system of benefits that have helped make millions of Americans healthier and more economically secure?

“The Evolution of the Social Safety Net: Change for the Better?” will include the following panelists and presentations:

“Evaluating TANF: What Did (or Didn't) Welfare Reform Accomplish?”
By Rebecca M. Blank, dean of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, Henry Carter Adams Collegiate Professor of Public Policy and professor of economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; co-editor of The New World of Welfare (Brookings Press, 2001).

“The Changing Role of Medicaid: From Babies to Boomers and Beyond"
By Leemore Dafny, Institute for Policy Research faculty fellow and assistant professor of management and strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

“The Increased Role of SSI in Addressing Child Poverty”
By Melissa S. Kearney, fellow, economic studies, Brookings Institution.

The policy briefing moderator is:

Therese McGuire , Institute for Policy Research faculty fellow and professor of management and strategy, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University.

(For more information on the presentations and panelists, go tohttp://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/events/panelistsinfoDec05.html; to register online, go tohttp://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/regform.html)

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