It bothers me when those analogies are made and there is no mention of the fact that both programs require the recipient to pay into them. SS is paid for during years of active employment. Medicare is paid for during both active employment and during retirement (premiums are withheld from SS checks).
"Welfare programs" (Welfare, food stamps, Medicaid) do not receive a penny from the recipients.
It is not an analogy. SS is just an income transfer from one group of people to another - just like food stamps, etc. We “paid into” NOTHING. There is no real trust fund, just IOUs th egovernment has written to itself promising to tax the life out of the next generation of victims. This evil ponzi scheme based on intergenerational theft needs to be terminated.
You are right that we have to be careful about suggesting people who get Social Security and Medicare are freeloading like a welfare recipient. That is not true and no one should suggest that a Social Security recipient is the same as a welfare recipient. However, Social Security is not a savings account either. It is a transfer payment. People are not simply accessing an account that has money in it. Social Security recipients’ money will come from tax payments by current taxpayers. That is where the perception problem is—current recipients or people who have paid into the system for years get angry that they there is a suggestion that they not get full benefits that they “paid for.” Unfortunately, it is the nature of any Ponzi scheme that someone is left holding the bag and that someone is us.