Report to the New Leadership and the American People on Social Insurance and Inequality

Our nation’s social insurance infrastructure forms the foundation of economic and health security for American workers and their families. Like all infrastructure, it must be periodically strengthened and modernized if it is to continue to meet the needs of a changing economy and society. This Report presents the new Administration and Congress with a range of evidence-based policy options, developed by the nation’s top social insurance experts, for doing so.

The first part of the Report takes stock of the policy challenges facing existing social insurance programs: Social Security, the major health insurance programs, and Unemployment Insurance. The second part discusses potential new directions for social insurance in coping with emerging needs in the areas of long-term services and supports, caregiving supports, and nonstandard work.

• Download the full Report (including executive summary, introduction, and conclusion)
• Download individual sections of the Report:

  • Part I: Strengthening Workers’ Risk Protections
    1. Social Security
    a. Restoring Social Security to Long-term Balance
    b. Social Security and the Gap in Retirement Wealth
    c. Strengthening Women’s Retirement Security
    d. Social Security Disability

    2. Health Insurance
    a. Improving Coverage and Cost through Health Insurance Reform
    b. Better Leveraging Medicaid to Improve Social Determinants of Health
    c. Strengthening Medicare’s Finances
    d. Reining in Prescription Drug Prices

    3. Unemployment Insurance
    a. Unemployment Insurance Benefits
    b. Unemployment Insurance Administration
    c. Unemployment Insurance Financing
    d. Reemployment Services

  • Part II: Modernizing Workers’ Social Insurance Protections
    4. Long-term Services and Supports
    5. Caregiving
    6. Nonstandard work