Total participation in private
pension plans grew to 78.2 million in 1987, up 1.5
million from the prior year. Since 1975, pension plan
participation has experienced a net increase of 33.7
million.
Defined benefit plans as a
percentage of all private pension plans have fallen from
33.2 percent in 1975 to 19.3 percent in 1988. At the same
time, there has been an increase in the percentage of
defined contribution plans from 66.8 percent to 80.7
percent.
Private and public pension funds
held more than $2.9 trillion in assets at the end of
1990, with an increase of $17 billion from year-end 1989.
The 1990 year-end assets are more than double the asset
level of 1982.
In 1989, almost 180 million persons
under age 65 had health insurance coverage, while 34.4
million people—or about 16 percent of the nonelderly
population—received neither private health insurance
nor publicly financed health coverage. Most of the
uninsured were working adults (54.6 percent), while the
remainder were nonworking adults (16.7 percent) or
children (28.7 percent).
U.S. expenditures on health care
totaled $666.2 billion in 1990, up from $602.8 billion in
1989, accounting for 12.2 percent of Gross National
Product (GNP) in 1990. The federal government projects
that spending will reach 16.4 percent of GNP in 2000.
Employer outlays for group health
insurance as a proportion of total compensation have
increased since 1980, most recently edging up from 4.3
percent in 1985 to 4.7 percent in 1989.
