Urban Institute

About: Urban Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Medicaid & Population. The organization has 927 authors who have published 2330 publications receiving 86426 citations.

What's driving the downward trend in employer-sponsored health insurance?

Abstract: Objective We investigate the factors driving the downward trend in employer sponsored health insurance (ESI) coverage between 1999 and 2002 for low- and middle-income workers, and assess their insurance options in the absence of ESI coverage.

An Early Look At Changes In Employer-Sponsored Insurance Under The Affordable Care Act

Abstract: Critics frequently characterize the ACA's Medicaid expansion and Marketplace subsidies as a threat to the survival of employer-sponsored insurance. This article takes advantage of timely data from the Health Reform Monitoring Survey for June 2013 through September 2014 to examine, from the perspective of workers, early changes in offer, take-up, and coverage rates for employer-sponsored insurance under the ACA. We find no evidence that these rates have declined under the ACA, either overall or for workers in small firms with lower incomes. Economic incentives for workers to obtain coverage from employers remain strong.

Projecting poverty rates in 2020 for the 62 and older population: what changes can we expect and why?

Abstract: This paper analyzes the factors that may be related to increased or decreased poverty among the 62- to 89-year-old population in 2020 using the Social Security Administration's Model of Income in the Near Term (MINT). The authors find that price-adjusted poverty is projected to decline from 7.8 percent in the early 1990s to 4.2 percent in 2020, but that wage-adjusted poverty is projected to increase from 7.8 percent to 9.9 percent. The increase in the normal retirement age and changes in marital composition each explain about 25 percent of the projected increase in wage-adjusted poverty. The changes in the relative earnings of men and women did not affect the poverty rate—it only affected who was in poverty. The rise in earnings inequality had almost no effect on poverty rates largely because of the progressive Social Security payment formula.

Extending the EITC to noncustodial parents: Potential impacts and design considerations

Abstract: This paper examines the noncustodial parent earned income tax credit (NCP EITC), a new type of credit recently enacted in New York and Washington, D.C. and proposed by Senator Bayh and then-Senator Obama in 2007. The NCP EITC offers an earned income tax credit to low-income noncustodial parents who work and pay their full child support. This paper describes the rationale for this policy and provides national estimates of the benefits and costs of an NCP EITC under three alternative policy scenarios. It also discusses several key design and implementation issues.

The Taxation of Retirement Saving: Choosing Between Front-Loaded and Back-Loaded Options

Abstract: [© Brookings Institution] We examine retirement savers' choices between front- and back-loaded tax incentives, such as traditional and Roth IRAs, respectively. With equal dollar contribution limits, back-loaded plans shelter more funds than front-loaded plans. This implies that Roth IRAs can be the preferred choice even for investors who expect their tax rates to fall in retirement. Empirically, we examine how marginal tax rates have varied between 1982 and 1995 for a sample of taxpayers and calculate both ex ante and ex post effective tax rates on front-loaded IRAs. The average effective tax rate on traditional IRA contributions made in 1982 and withdrawn in 1995 was negative 30 percent. Changes in tax law after 1982 reduced tax rates considerably. Holding tax law constant, the average effective tax rate on IRAs was about negative 11 percent. These results occur because the tax rate in retirement is lower for most people than the rate while working. In contrast, the effective tax rate on Roth IRAs is always zero. Despite the lower average effective tax rate on traditional IRAs, many taxpayers in the sample would have benefited from contributing to a Roth IRA instead of a traditional IRA, due to the difference in effective contribution limits.