Our Nation's social insurance programs are vast and encompass everything from education and housing to income support, health, nutrition and workforce development. CAUS is focused on the federal and state programs that support retirement income and health insurance amongst our nations vulnerable populations. Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are all financed through income tax with entitlements (Social Security and Medicare) undergoing an annual appropriations process to determine budgets and funding. The importance laying out a proper financial framework for these programs cannot be stressed enough. We are at a critical juncture given the looming commitments that have been made to plan participants without any viable grasp as to the financial insolvency of these programs.
The power of the CA2M framework is that it facilitates the discipline of considering the effects a policy will have on every one of these interdependent variables. Better decision-making will result from such multi-dimensional analysis. Can this holistic analysis be advanced to the point of calculating the full net “value” of a policy, combining these component indicators to determine if a policy is producing an overall net positive or negative result for society?