Summary
Tracking Health Insurance Coverage by Month: Trends in Employment-Based Coverage Among Workers, and Access to Coverage Among Uninsured Workers, 1995-2009
HEALTH COVERAGE ON A MONTHLY BASIS: This analysis examines employment-based health benefit coverage rates on a monthly basis from December 1995 to December 2009, to allow for more accurate identification of changes in trends, and to more clearly show the effects of recessions and unemployment on changes in coverage.
RECESSION PERIODS: The recession officially started in December 2007 and ended in December 2009. Between December 2007–August 2009 the percentage of workers with coverage in their own name fell from 60.4 percent to 55.9 percent. After August 2009, there appeared to be what might be the beginning of a recovery in the percentage of workers with employment-based coverage. By December 2009, 56.6 percent of workers had employment-based coverage.
How Changes in Longevity Annuity Prices and Longevity Risk Affect Retirement Income Adequacy
FOLLOW-UP STUDY: Building on the May 2011 EBRI Issue Brief, this article analyzes how changes in longevity annuity prices and longevity risk affect retirement income adequacy of retirees facing three different types of risk—investment income, longevity, and long-term care risk.
CHANGING PRICES AND RISK: As the price of a longevity annuity increases, and as longevity risk grows, more initial retirement wealth is needed and the degree of annuitization needs to be increased—especially to achieve a 90 percent chance of adequacy (the inverse is true as well). The optimal degree of annuitization with a longevity annuity, however, depends on how much an individual’s retirement portfolio is invested in equities.