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Pay-for-Results Health Insurance Promotes the Idea of Fiscal Responsibility

Excerpt: Though it seems like an idea that can be easily attacked as just another scheme to ration care, the reform ? called value-based insurance design ? couples the Republican principles of market-based incentives and consumer choice with the Democratic reformers' goal of eliminating costly and unnecessary care.

Fiscal Year Health Plan Transition Relief Under the ACA (PDF)

"The relief applies to all employees (whenever hired) who would be eligible for coverage (whether or not they take the coverage) before the first day of the 2014 fiscal plan year if the following conditions have been satisfied: [1] The health plan must have been a fiscal year plan, as of December 27, 2012, and the plan meets Minimum Value and is Affordable by the 1st day of the 2014 fiscal plan year. [2] (a) the fiscal year plan (including any other fiscal year plans that have the same plan year) was offered to at least 1/3 of the employer's employees (full-time and part-time) at the most recent open season or (b) the fiscal year plan covered at least 25% of the employer's employees[.]"

Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation Annual Management Report for Fiscal Year 2009 (PDF)

99 pages. Excerpt: [Some of the Fiscal Year 2009 Financial Statement Highlights are as follows:] PBGC's combined financial condition declined by $10.80 billion, increasing the Corporation's deficit to $21.95 billion as of September 30, 2009, from $11.15 billion as of September 30, 2008. PBGC's portfolio achieved a return on investment of 13.2%. The single-employer program's net position declined by $10.40 billion, increasing the program's deficit to $21.08 billion. The multiemployer program's net position declined by $396 million, increasing that program's deficit to $869 million. The primary factors in the single-employer program's net loss included a charge of $10.55 billion due to an unfavorable change in interest factors, $4.23 billion in losses from completed and probable terminations, $3.92 billion in charges due to passage of time, and $383 million of administrative and other expenses. These factors were offset by $6.33 billion in investment income, $1.82 billion in net premium income, and a credit of $573 million from actuarial adjustments.

Stabilizing Future Fiscal Policy: It's Time to Start

Excerpt: Fiscal policy is out of control. Programs, such as Social Security and Medicare, have design features that push up spending faster than the growth of revenues. It is time to change the course of the automatic pilot driving these programs. To do so, policymakers can develop 'triggers' that automatically curb spending.... The paper examines triggers employed to reform Social Security in other advanced democracies and explores design options for an optimal trigger.

GAO Report: State and Local Governments' Fiscal Outlook -- April 2011 Update

14 pages. "As we have reported in previous model updates, and as shown in figure 1, the sector faces long-term fiscal challenges that grow over time. The model's simulations show that the fiscal position of the sector will steadily decline through 2060 absent any policy changes." Editor's Note: The report includes health care and pension fund expenditures. [GAO-11-495SP, Apr. 6, 2011]

How Would the President's Fiscal Commission's Social Security Proposals Affect Future Beneficiaries? (PDF)

"Using the Dynamic Simulation of Income Model, we project how Social Security benefits and payroll taxes would change were Congress to enact the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's proposal. We show benefits at several points in time and relative to pre-retirement income, a low-income standard, and lifetime payroll tax contributions. The proposal's projected effects are particularly deep relative to current law scheduled for those reaching retirement in several decades. Projected benefit reductions relate closely to lifetime earnings: Lower earners are largely shielded, higher earners face significant reductions. Projections are sensitive to workers' assumed responses to certain proposal provisions."

New Cancer Drugs Affordable By The 1 Percent?

[A]n economic drama ... is playing itself out in cancer wards and oncologists' offices across the country. Unaffordable new drugs, even when they're covered by insurance, are being rationed by price as patients, doctors and hospital officials struggle with what is likely to be the most pressing problem for the nation's health care system over the next decade: how to pay for the spectacular rise in the cost of cancer care, especially drugs and diagnostic tests.

The Growing Retirement Nightmare for Women

'While women today have more economic opportunity than ever before, they also have a great deal more financial responsibility,' said Sandra Timmermann, director of the MetLife Institute. 'Compared to previous generations of women who likely had a pension (either theirs or their husband's) and a deed to a mortgage-free home, today's women are less prepared.'

SSA OIG Report: Overpayments Assessed in Fiscal Years 2020 Through 2023 (PDF)

11 pages. "In Fiscal Years 2020 through 2023, SSA reported it issued approximately $32.8 billion in OASDI and SSI overpayments ... SSA attributed 72 percent of OASDI overpayments to beneficiaries who did not report or timely report information to SSA that negatively affected their benefits. SSA determined the remaining 28 percent occurred due to other reasons."

Reconsidering the Roth 401(k) After the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and Federal Fiscal Realities

9 pages. Excerpt: The bottom line to most participants is: the Roth election is essentially a gamble based on future unknowns. It is unlikely that those unknowns--i.e. the amount by which entitlements will be reduced in the future (if any), the future income tax rates and the future tax system--will become known in the foreseeable future.... Thus, many employers will decide that [Roth 401(k)s] are just not worth the hassle. However, it appears that utilization of the Roth 401(k) option will grow slowly over time[.]