Welfare Reform Act

Welfare Reform Act

Emella Steele

PSY 285

November 02, 2014

Myrnell Martin

Welfare Reform Act

Since the 1960s welfare has been a debated issue, and it continues to be a debated issue. In the late 1980s, the citizens were calling for reform of the Welfare System. The Welfare Reform Act, which is also known as the “The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996”, was intentionally designed to help needy families with children dependents and/or people receiving Supplement Security Income (SSI) with cash benefits, who in return would be eligible for Medicaid Health Insurance (Valerius, Bayes, Newby, & Seggern, 2014). AFDC (Aid to families with dependent children) with another program called “TANF,” Temporary Assistance to Needy Families was replaced with the Welfare Reform Act. For someone to receive or to even become a candidate for TANF, there are certain “guidelines” or requirements that have to be met. First, for you to qualify for TANF a person has to have qualifying dependents; as well as earned or the unearned Income is not exceeding a certain amount set by TANF. Next, you have to take part in the TANF program one must be willing (if it falls under his or her state statue) to seek available employment.

There are both a positive and negative implications of the Welfare Reform Act 1996 on Medicaid. The negative implication is that even though most of the people on welfare and Medicaid are able-bodied people who could be self-sufficient if they had to be, Medicaid and other social programs are reinforce these peoples laziness and willingness to contribute to society. Welfare reform has only decreased handouts marginally. The positive implication is that some effort was made to reduce the number of people who were dependent upon the state. The genetic implications of the welfare system and Medicaid in particular are terrifying to anticipate. Eligible Medicaid candidates sometimes remain un-enrolled even though they are needy as a result...