Ever see how bare bones The Social Security Act (Act of August 14, 1935) {H. R. 7260} was?

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Broadly similar

The ACA has some very good benefits.

But SS and ACA are very different in scale and philosophy. Before Social Security, roughly 50% of retirees lived in poverty. Now it's less than 10% (and it will grow, of course, if the bipartisan war on SS makes progress). This has directly helped many millions of people, kept many from starving or freezing. I believe that the number of children who will actually be helped by ACA will be not so great - many more children will get coverage, but *relatively* few children get serious illnesses compared to other age groups.

Also, Social Security is a direct payment to workers, rather than a trickle-down scheme. It would be far, far less expensive to simply expand Medicare. ACA will transfer a lot of money from the 99% to insurance companies (which is why insurance stocks shot up when it became clear that it would become law). Because of this great expense, Obama claims he needs to cut spending and has asked that the eligibility age for Medicare be raised to 67 - this will cause great harm to many Americans.