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Benefits February 1, 2008
EBRI Data Sheds Light on Health, Retirement Issues
February 1, 2008 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Health and
retirement issues are being raised as the 2008 election
campaign heats up.
Reported by Nevin E. Adams
The Employee Benefit Research Institute has provided a series of questions and answers about major employee health and retirement benefits, along with hotlinks to relevant tables and charts.
Among the questions answered:
Q: Overall, what percentage of U.S. residents do not have health insurance?
United States were without health insurance.
Q: Do most of the uninsured live in families headed by a worker, or in a family headed by an unemployed individual?
Q: Are men or women more likely to be uninsured?
Q: What impact do immigrants have on the number of uninsured in the United States?
Q: What percentage of the nonelderly (under age 65) U.S. population have employment-based health insurance coverage?
Q: What are the trends in employment-based health coverage in the United States?
Q: What are the trends in public health coverage in the United States?
Since then, the percentage has remained fairly constant.
Q: Does the size of the employer have anything to do with workers' likelihood of having access to health care benefits?
A. Yes: The chance of having health care coverage goes up with the size of the firm.
Q: Does occupation influence the likelihood of having access to health benefits?
A. Yes: The uninsured are concentrated disproportionately in service-sector occupations or blue-collar jobs.
Q: Does income affect the likelihood of having access to health benefits?
Q: Do most of the uninsured live in families headed by a worker, or in a family headed by an unemployed individual?
Q: Are men or women more likely to be uninsured?
Q: What impact do immigrants have on the number of uninsured in the United States?
Q: What percentage of the nonelderly (under age 65) U.S. population have employment-based health insurance coverage?
Q: What are the trends in employment-based health coverage in the United States?
Q: What are the trends in public health coverage in the United States?
Since then, the percentage has remained fairly constant.
Q: Does the size of the employer have anything to do with workers' likelihood of having access to health care benefits?
A. Yes: The chance of having health care coverage goes up with the size of the firm.
Q: Does occupation influence the likelihood of having access to health benefits?
A. Yes: The uninsured are concentrated disproportionately in service-sector occupations or blue-collar jobs.
Q: Does income affect the likelihood of having access to health benefits?
Q: How many U.S. workers participate in an employment-based retirement plan?
Q: Among those most likely to be working, how many participate in any kind of employer- or union-sponsored retirement plan?
Q: Are men or women more likely to participate in a retirement plan?
Q: What are the recent trends in private-sector participation in defined benefit (pension) and defined contribution (401(k)-type) plans?
A. The share of workers participating only in a defined benefit ("traditional" pension) plan declined from 62% in 1980 to 10% in 2005. The share of workers participating only in a defined contribution (401(k)-type) plan increased from 22% in 1980 to 63% in 2005.
Q: How much money is in retirement plans and where are most of the assets held?
retirement income plans (both defined benefit and defined contribution) amounted to $14.388 trillion.
Q: How much do individuals need to save for retiree health care costs?
Q: How much do Americans say they have saved for retirement?
Q: How much do American workers think they need to save for retirement?
A. One-quarter of workers said they need to save less than $250,000, and another 2 in 10 mention a goal of $250,000 - $499,999.
Q: What is the average and median (half above, half below) account balance for 401(k) plan owners?
Expanded answers to these - and other - questions, as well as reports and charts, are online at http://www.ebri.org/campaign/