One obvious consequence will be pressure on the social-insurance system, including health care and pensions, as the working-age population shrinks dramatically.

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The Social Security Disability Insurance system has more than 10 million beneficiaries.

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Theodore Roosevelt ran for President in 1912 on a Progressive Party platform calling for a national system of social insurance.

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In the cities the main system combines social insurance, paid for by payroll taxes, with individual accounts, into which workers must pay 8% of their earnings.

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Nor is there any reason why the state should not help to organize a comprehensive system of social insurance in providing for those common hazards of life against which few can make adequate provision.

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In April, national insurance contributions the money employers pay into the social security system will be extended to include private medical insurance, an incentive for some firms to eliminate the benefit and save the costs.

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Beveridge's system was about social insurance.

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Under the changes, a self-employed worker who contributes to the social security system in one EU country, and then moves to another member state that does not have unemployment insurance for the self-employed will be able to claim unemployment benefit from the country where the worker was last based before becoming unemployed.

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