Issue Briefs

The proportion of uninsured working-age Americans rose slightly to 17.9 percent in 2005, and the overall percentage of the population under age 65 with health insurance declined in 2005 to a post-1994 low of 82.1 percent. This Issue Brief provides historic data through 2005 on the number and percentage of nonelderly individuals with and without health insurance. It also discusses trends in coverage for the 1994–2005 period and highlights characteristics that typically indicate whether an individual is insured. EBRI Issue Brief Oct 3, 2006 32 pages

A couple age 65 retiring today and living to average life expectancy would need $295,000 to cover premiums for health insurance and out-of-pocket expenses during retirement, according to a new study& by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI). EBRI Issue Brief Jul 20, 2006 32 pages

This Issue Brief examines changes that policymakers are discussing, explores the history of tax laws concerning the tax treatment of health benefits and the cost to the federal government in forgone taxes because of these laws, and examines some the advantages and disadvantages that could result from the proposed changes. EBRI Issue Brief Jun 15, 2006 32 pages

This Issue Brief explores whether an old concept (benefit design) and a newer concept (evidence-based clinical information) can be more explicitly linked in order to better focus care on health improvement, and to discourage services and costs that do not result in improved health. EBRI Issue Brief Feb 16, 2006 16 pages

Americans enrolled in a relatively new type of health coverage designed to make them more cost conscious are less satisfied with their health plan than those with comprehensive health insurance and are less likely to recommend the new plans to a friend or colleague, a ground-breaking nationwide survey. EBRI Issue Brief Dec 8, 2005 32 pages

This Issue Brief provides historic data through 2004 on the number and percentage of nonelderly individuals with and without health insurance. Based on EBRI estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s March 2005 Current Population Survey (CPS), it reflects 2004 data. It also discusses trends in coverage for the 1994–2004 period and highlights characteristics that typically indicate whether an individual is insured. EBRI Issue Brief Nov 7, 2005 32 pages

This Issue Brief examines the state of employment-based health benefits among workers with respect to offer rates, coverage rates, and take-up rates. It also examines how the state of employment-based health benefits has changed since the mid-1990s, reasons why workers do not have employment-based health benefits from their own employer, and how these reasons have changed since the 1990s. EBRI Issue Brief Aug 8, 2005 28 pages

which presents a detailed examination of a unique community-based initiative to expand health care coverage to uninsured workers at small firms in Muskegon, Mich. EBRI Issue Brief Jun 1, 2005 32 pages

which seeks to provide answers to how the public will be affected by fundamentally different approaches to Social Security reform. This analysis compares "Model 2" individual accounts from the 2001 President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security (the closest detailed proposal to what President Bush has endorsed) with three basic options: Raising taxes, imposing sharp ("cliff") benefit cuts, and gradually reducing benefits. EBRI Issue Brief May 1, 2005 32 pages

EBRI Issue Brief Mar 1, 2005 20 pages