Using Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) data from the U.S. Census Bureau, characteristics of individual retirement account (IRA) owners ages 21 and over are examined. Approximately, 16 percent of Americans ages 21 and over owned an IRA early in 1997, with an average balance of...

This study examines various traditional Social Security reforms that achieve a zero actuarial balance over the standard 75-year evaluation period and a reform that is similar to the one proposed by Reps. Archer and Shaw. Using the capabilities of SSASIM, a policy simulation model, each reform's...

This Issue Brief examines the changes in private pension plan participation for defined benefit and defined contribution plans and the impact of these changes on the sources of retirement income. The Employee Benefit Research Institute's Retirement Income Projection Model is used to quantify how...

Medicare, the federal health insurance program for the elderly and the disabled, is facing an impending financial crisis, as the expected outlays from the Hospital Insurance Trust Fund are estimated to surpass the projected revenues beginning in 2007. However, the benefits offered to Medicare...

Regulation of health insurance has been the focus of recent legislation in Congress and has become a major political issue. One of the important hurdles facing policymakers is deciding on the scope of individuals who would be covered under potential congressional legislation. For example, in the...

This Issue Brief discusses Medicare reform. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 reduces spending in the Medicare program by $115 billion between 1998 and 2002. Most of the reduction in spending comes from reducing payments to providers, and most of the savings (36 percent) occur in 2002. By 2007,...

Social Security emerged as one of the biggest policy differences between the Democratic and Republican nominees for president in 2000 - although both candidates outlined only general ideas on Social Security reform and did not advance any specific proposals. Al Gore's position was that the...

This article examines pension participation of working household heads using the Federal Reserve Board's Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF). First, the percentage of working household heads that work for an employer who offers a plan and the percentage that actually participate is estimated...

Annual estimates of pension coverage for wage and salary workers are not well documented. Two supplements to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS)--one conducted annually in March and the other every other year in February--include questions pertaining to pension coverage....

Prescription drug expenditures have come to the forefront of the debate over health care in the United States. While expenditure growth has slowed for the other major sources of health care--hospital services and physician services--prescription drug costs have continued rising at double-digit...