Finances of Employee Benefits

In 1998, Americans received a gross total of about $1.4 trillion from major employee benefit programs. Retirement benefit payments of $780.4 billion accounted for 56.2 percent of total benefit payments. Of that amount, $369.4 billion was paid by the Social Security Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program; $241.1 billion by private pension and profit-sharing plans; and $170.0 billion by public employer retirement plans. Health benefit payments of $500.6 billion accounted for 36.1 percent of total benefit payments. Fifty-eight percent of this, or $290.8 billion, was paid by private group health insurance programs, while $208.7 billion was paid by Medicare. The PDF for the above title, published in the July 2000 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the full text of another July 2000 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: "National Health Spending Up 5.6 Percent Between 1997 and 1998; Public Spending for Health Care Understated."