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Thinking about Retirement?
Social Security: Americans Agree VIDEO
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Have you seen “Social Security: Americans Agree?” Click here to learn more.
Social Security: Just the Facts Video
Have you seen, “Social Security: Just the Facts?” Click here to learn more.
COVERED: a week-by-week look at the political and legislative developments that led to the creation of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago. Bob Rosenblatt, Academy senior fellow and former Los Angeles Times Washington correspondent will report on the people and the maneuvers that led to this major expansion of social insurance.
2017 Discussion Archive
Addressing Six Key Questions for Health Care Reform
On November 16, 2017, the National Academy of Social Insurance co-hosted an educational seminar with the USC Schaeffer Center to examine America’s challenges and opportunities for health care reform. The event was held in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California and focused on “Balancing Costs, Coverage, and Quality.”
Read More…IN MEMORIAM: UWE E. REINHARDT
Uwe E. Reinhardt, James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, passed away on Monday, Nov. 13, at the age of 80. I invite you to share your memories of Uwe by using the comment box below.
Read More…Academy Briefs Chinese Delegation on U.S. Social Insurance System
On Tuesday, November 7, the Academy hosted an educational forum for 30 members of a delegation of government officials from the Guangdong Province of China. The officials, representing various departments within the provincial government, were participants of Georgetown University’s Global Education Institute, which provides an executive program for Chinese provincial civil servants. Academy members and staff provided an overview of four key areas of the American system of social insurance.
Read More…We asked Larry Summers for a social insurance agenda, and here’s what he suggested
On October 16, 2017, Members of the National Academy of Social Insurance, as well as other experts and supporters, gathered in Cambridge, Massachusetts to discuss our nation’s social insurance programs and how they are addressing – and could better address – the challenges posed by growing inequality.
The Academy’s Board Chair, Bill Rodgers, Professor of Public Policy and Chief Economist at the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, sat down with Professor Larry Summers for a fireside-style chat.
Read More…New Ideas for the Next Social Security Reform
Last Thursday, big thinkers from around the country joined the Academy in Washington, DC to discuss how Social Security policy could respond to prevailing demographic, economic, and workforce trends. Video of the event can be accessed here. The policy options discussed were not the familiar “Lego pieces” of Social Security policy, as AARP’s Chief Public Policy Officer, Debra Whitman, put it in her closing remarks at the forum.
Read More…Considerations for Policymakers in the Design of Paid Family and Medical Leave Systems
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As states work on the development of new paid family and medical leave systems, they face critical design choices with respect to system architecture, funding, and administration. With regard to system architecture, the main choices are between a social insurance approach and an employer mandate, although there are gradations between the two. In a social insurance approach, risk and resources are pooled broadly across virtually all workers in a state. In an employer mandate system, employers are required to offer insurance to their workers but can either self-insure, purchase insurance from a private carrier, or participate in a state fund, if one exists in their state.
Read More…Inequality
Having recently completed my first year as the Academy’s Chief Executive Officer, I’ve reflected on my many interactions with Academy Members at our annual Membership meeting, Policy Conference, 30th Anniversary celebration, and other events that we have sponsored, as well as emails and phone conversations.
Among the questions most frequently posed to me are:
- Why has the Academy chosen “inequality” as our overarching strategic theme and framework?
- What does this mean for the Academy’s policy work?
Background
I first addressed this issue in a letter to the New York Times published in February 2015.
Disability Protection IS Part of Social Security.
During the 2016 campaign, President Trump promised not to cut Social Security. Yet the White House’s FY 2018 Budget proposes up to $64 billion in cuts to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) expenditures. The cuts stem mostly from measures to “test new program rules and processes and require mandatory participation by program applicants and beneficiaries,” with the objective of moving disabled beneficiaries from the SSDI program into fuller labor market participation.
Read More…A Middle Way towards Public Policy
In a time when this nation is so deeply divided and both the left and right see visions of ghosts and demons, there is a need for clear eyed people to look deeply at what is truly happening and act to ensure that hyperbole and rhetoric do not become the way.
Read More…Individual Retirement Accounts: A Global Perspective
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A decade ago when Congress debated President George W. Bush’s proposal for partial privatization of Social Security, U.S. pension analysts scrutinized the experience of countries that had replaced, or partially replaced, social insurance with privately managed investment accounts, seeking lessons for the United States. In the years since Congress rejected the Bush proposal, U.S. analysts have focused less on these foreign systems. Yet they continue to offer rich insights into the challenges of ensuring retirement security through individual accounts.
Read More…International Women's Day
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As we celebrate International Women’s Day, let us recall the contributions to our nation’s vibrant social insurance infrastructure by those women who are no longer with us, but whose legacies remain strong.
Among these often unsung heroines are:
Read More…Policy Perspectives with Founding Academy Members: Podcast with Theodore (Ted) Marmor
In the fourth of a series of podcast interviews, National Academy of Social Insurance CEO William Arnone talks with Founding Member Theodore R. Marmor about the early days of the Academy. Marmor is Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Management & Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the Yale School of Management. Listen now.
Read More…Raising Medicare’s Eligibility Age: With and Without the ACA
The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare Foundation released a new study showing the dramatic impact of raising Medicare’s eligibility age from 65 to 67—assessing results on the rates of seniors who will be uninsured if the ACA stays in place and if it is repealed. The study was guided by the Foundation’s Task Force on America’s Health and Retirement Security, chaired by Marilyn Moon and led by Principal Investigators, Peter Arno and Carroll Estes.
Policy Perspectives with Founding Academy Members: Podcast with Lawrence H. Thompson
What issue did Bob Ball say we couldn’t win and therefore wanted off of the front page? Who said “every good principle can be carried too far?” Find out in the third in a series of podcast interviews, when Academy CEO William Arnone sits with Founding Member Larry Thompson. Thompson is a former U.S. government official and former Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC. Listen now.
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