Authors: Brooke Hollister, BA, and Karyn DiGiorgio, RN, San Francisco, Calif Section Editor: Ruth E. Malone, RN, PhD, and Angela Hackenschmidt, RN, MS, CEN Brooke Hollister is a Doctoral Student, University of California ] San Francisco Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Karyn DiGiorgio is ED Staff Nurse, University of California ] San Francisco Medical Center. For correspondence, write: Brooke Hollister, University of California ] San Francisco Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 3333 California St, Suite 340, San Francisco, CA 94118; E-mail: Brooke. hollister@ucsf.edu. J Emerg Nurs 2006;32:280-2. 0099-1767/$32.00 Copyright n 2006 by the Emergency Nurses Association. doi: 10.1016/j.jen.2006.03.001 W hen emergency nurses make recommenda- tions to elderly and/or disabled patients who are being discharged from the emergency department, we assume that a certain level of basic income is available to those patients outside the hospital. Since the enactment of Social Security in 1935, this assumption has been met in the form of Social Security benefits. As providers, we have a baseline understanding of what those benefits are and can comfortably make recommendations for care within those guidelines. Social Security is the most successful anti-poverty program in the nation and, possibly, in the world. It pro- vides retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to elderly adults, younger disabled persons, and those who have lost a spouse or parent who was the family’s primary wage earner. At several points in U.S. history, there have been discussions about Social Security’s future. During President Ronald Reagan’s first term, a variety of adjustments were made to the program to ensure its financial stability. During President Clinton’s administration, a portion of the federal surplus was used to shore up Social Security for the future retirement of the baby boomer generation. However, recent discussions of Social Security have focused not on how to maintain and improve Social Security for future generations but on shifting the risk of benefit inadequacy from the government to the individual. The administration of Presi- dent George W. Bush has advocated Social Security pri- vatization, promoting self-managed private investing as the answer to funding retirement. According to The Century Foundation, ‘‘Social Secu- rity can be credited with significantly reducing the poverty rate among the elderly from more than 35% before 1960 to 10% today.’’ Proposals such as the one endorsed by the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security Considerations in Discharge Planning of ED Patients if Social Security Benefits Are Compromised POLICY PERSPECTIVES 280 JOURNAL OF EMERGENCY NURSING 32:3 June 2006