Early life and career
Cohen was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Bessie (''née'' Rubenstein) and Aaron Cohen. He was known to by several nicknames. He was once dubbed "The Man Who Built Medicare (United States), Medicare" and John F. Kennedy tagged him "Mr. Social Security", although it was Frances Perkins, the first woman Secretary of Labor (under Franklin D. Roosevelt, FDR), who was the architect of social security. ''The New York Times'' called him "one of the country's foremost technicians in public welfare." ''Time (magazine), Time'' portrayed him as a man of "boundless energy, infectious enthusiasm, and a drive for action." He was a leading expert on Social Security (United States), Social Security and a member of Americans for Democratic Action. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1934, Cohen moved to Washington, D.C. where he was a research assistant for the committee which drafted the Social Security Act. On April 8, 1938, Cohen married Eloise Bittel. They had three sons: Christopher, Bruce and Stuart. He was Director of the Bureau of Research and Statistics in charge of program development and legislative coordination with Congress for the Social Security Board (SSB), which was renamed the Social Security Administration in 1946.Kennedy and Johnson administrations
In 1961, President of the United States, President John F. Kennedy appointed Cohen as Assistant Secretary for Legislation of Health, Education, and Welfare. According to Christy Ford Chapin (''Insuring America's Health: The Public Creation of the Corporate Health Care System'' p. 205) it was Cohen who, during the writing of Medicare legislation, "advised fellow reformers that partnering with insurance companies would create a politically palatable program"—with the result that America is today the only "developed" country with a for-private-profit health care system and without universal health care. Nicholas Lemann (''The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America'' p. 131 & 143) describes Cohen as "a first-generation New Deal social welfare planner [who] was deputy secretary but the real power in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare" and "an old friend of [Lyndon] Johnson." President Lyndon B. Johnson elevated him to Under Secretary in 1965, and he served as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from May 1968 to the end of Lyndon B. Johnson, Johnson's Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, term, following the resignation of John W. Gardner. With a tenure of 249 days, Cohen became the shortest-ever secretary of that department, as the office was succeeded by the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services in 1980. Cohen also served a shorter tenure than any Secretary of Health and Human Services did, until 2017, when Tom Price (American politician), Tom Price, the first Secretary of Health and Human Services of the Donald Trump, Trump Presidency of Donald Trump, administration, resigned after just 231 days, setting a new record for the shortest tenure.Later life and death
In 1969, Cohen retired at the end of a Johnson's administration. In 1970, Cohen served as the president of the American Public Welfare Association (renamed the American Public Human Services Association in 1997). In 1971, Cohen was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board. In 1980 Cohen became a Professor of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.Saxon, WBooks
* ''The Elimination of Poverty in the United States''. Wilbur J. Cohen, 1963. * ''The Roosevelt New Deal: A Program Assessment Fifty Years After''. Wilbur J. Cohen. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1986 paperback edition: , . * ''Social Security: Universal or Selective?'' Wilbur J. Cohen and Milton Friedman, co-authors. Washington: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. 1972References
External links
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cohen, Wilbur J. 1913 births 1987 deaths American political writers American male non-fiction writers American social sciences writers American social scientists Jewish American social scientists Jewish American members of the Cabinet of the United States Social security in the United States Scientists from Milwaukee University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni University of Michigan faculty United States Secretaries of Health, Education, and Welfare University of Texas at Austin faculty Kennedy administration personnel Lyndon B. Johnson administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century American male writers Members of the National Academy of Medicine