Retirement Income Adequacy for Boomers and Gen Xers: Evidence from the 2012 EBRI Retirement Security Projection Model®
Measuring retirement security -- or retirement income adequacy -- is an extremely important topic. EBRI launched a major project to provide this type of measurement in the late 1990s for several states concerned whether their residents would have sufficient income when they reached retirement age. After conducting studies for Oregon, Kansas, and Massachusetts, a national model -- the EBRI Retirement Security Projection Model® (RSPM) -- was developed in 2003, and in 2010 it was updated to incorporate several significant changes, including the impacts of defined benefit plan freezes, automatic enrollment provisions for 401(k) plans, and the recent crises in the financial and housing markets. EBRI has recently updated RSPM for changes in financial and real estate market conditions as well as underlying demographic changes and changes in 401(k) participant behavior since January 1, 2010 (based on a database of 23 million 401(k) participants). This paper provides updates for the previously published EBRI Retirement Readiness Ratings™ as well as the Retirement Savings Shortfalls. EBRI’s updated 2012 Retirement Security Projection Model® finds that for Early Baby Boomers (individuals born between 1948-1954), Late Baby Boomers (born between 1955-1964) and Generation Xers (born between 1965-1974), roughly 44 percent of the simulated lifepaths were projected to lack adequate retirement income for basic retirement expenses plus uninsured health care costs. These “at-risk” levels are some 5-8 percentage points LOWER than what was found in 2003, largely due to the growing adoption of automatic enrollment by 401(k) plan sponsors. Eligibility for a workplace defined contribution retirement plan has a significant positive impact on “at-risk” levels. The aggregate retirement income deficit number, taking into account current Social Security retirement benefits and the assumption that net housing equity is utilized “as needed,” is currently estimated to be $4.3 trillion for all Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. The PDF for the above title, published in the May 2012 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another May 2012 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Trends in Employment-Based Coverage Among Workers, and Access to Coverage Among Uninsured Workers, 1995-2011.”
Tracking Health Insurance Coverage by Month: Trends in Employment-Based Coverage Among Workers, and Access to Coverage Among Uninsured Workers, 1995-2012
There is a strong link between health benefits and employment. As a result, employment-based health benefits are the most common form of health insurance for nonpoor and nonelderly individuals in the United States. In 2010, 58.7 percent of nonelderly individuals (under age 65) were covered by an employment-based health benefits plan, with 68.6 percent of workers covered, 35.3 percent of nonworking adults covered, and 54.8 percent of children covered. Since the 1980s, the percentage of individuals without health insurance coverage has generally been increasing, in large part because rising health benefit costs eroded employment-based coverage. However, for a few years during the late 1990s, the percentage of workers and their families with employment-based coverage increased and the percentage without health insurance declined, in large part due to the strong economy and low unemployment. While the percentage of workers with coverage has ebbed and flowed with the economy and health care costs, trends in the percentage of workers offered coverage and the percentage of workers taking coverage when offered have remained steady. Prior research had shown that the percentage of workers offered health benefits had been increasing, but the take-up rate had been declining. The purpose of this paper is to examine the state of employment-based health benefits. Coverage rates are examined on a monthly basis from December 1995 to April 2010. This analysis updates prior EBRI research that examined trends in coverage on a monthly basis over this time period. Examining these data on a monthly basis allows more accurate identification of changes in trends, and can also more clearly indicate the effects of recessions and unemployment on changes in coverage. Trends in offer rates and reasons for being uninsured among uninsured workers are also examined.The PDF for the above title, published in the October 2011 issue of EBRI Notes, also contains the fulltext of another October 2011 EBRI Notes article abstracted on SSRN: “Ownership of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)-Type Plans, 1996-2009.”
Nonobstetric lower genital tract injuries in rural India
To study the impact of nonobstetric genital tract injury (NOGTI) in rural India.