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13 Tax Review 1 (1952)

handle is hein.tera/tafoutaxt0015 and id is 1 raw text is: TA x RE-VIEW JANUARY 1952, Vol. XII, No. 1 Published by The Tax Foundafion, Inc., 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York 20, New York 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Federal Insurance: How It Grows It May Soon Far Surpass Dollar Amounts Underwritten by Private Life Insurance Concerns. W ITIIouT going through the motions of socializing the nation's private insurance business, but merely by dint of continuously enlarging and enlarging, the Federal government, under its various insurance programs, is now virtually running neck-and-neck with the industry in the total amount of life insurance in force. By the end of this year (1952), the amount the Railroad Retirement Board. The four deal underwritten by Uncle Sam may well pass respectively with workers, military servicemen, civil the dollar amounts underwritten by all the servants, and railroad workers. And all of them private life insurance companies in the seem to have moved from a primary interest in country. pensions to a supplementary, or substitute interest Thus, a nation with only 6% or 77 of the world's in survivors benefits. population - which has heretofore prided itself on The private insurance companies are divided into carrying through its private companies nearly three- several separate entities, i.e., the old-line life insur- fourths of the world's private insurance (death bene- a(r fit only), may see the tile pass. Not to another group, and industrial, subsections) ; the fra- nation (most are far less insurance-conscious than ternal insurance societies; the assessment associa- the U.S.) but to the Federal government itself. tions; and the savings-hank life insurance concerns. For anyyear noy, iew rogam aternew All of these, no matter what their set-up, are cost- For many years ow, new program after new conscious. The are supervised by state departments program has been instituted; benefits upped with of insurance, and have been logically developed in little relation to payments; and a nation, once proud the interest of the contingent of its people's ability to stand on their own re- rem tie ed sources, has become more and more security conscious. The most recent estimates for the end of 1950 May Be a Warning show that government insurance in force totaled $252 billion - as against only $244 billion of From these recently available figures, as one privately-written insurance in force. And, (unless expert put it the other day, it would appear that private insurance concerns spurt more rapidly in Socialization of (private) insurance is not only the next year) life insurance in force under various under way, but is already well advanced and is pro- governmental agencies is likely to run as high as $325 billion by the end of 1952 - as against a vast portion of this Federal insurance in force had possible $296 billion in force under private in- come into being under the socialistic philosophy surance policies, of the present administration. There are four Federal agencies involved in the insurance picture today: The Old Age and Sur- vivors' Insurance Bureau of the Social Security Administration; the Veterans' Administration; the Civil Service Commission's Retirement System; and Copyright 1952 by The Tax Foundation, Inc. More ominous, this pre-empting of insurance activities by the Federal government may well be a significant guidepost to a wider, more insidious move on a world-wide basis in the opinion of Wil- liam L. McGrath, an adviser to the Employer Dele- 1