Description: This article is about the relative merits of changing the U.S. Social Security system from its current defined benefit approach to a defined contribution approach.

Description: This article from The Actuary, April 1971, volume 5, Issue 4 is about Social Security and Medicare. This note compares actual experience for both fiscal year 1970 and calendar year 1970 with the short-range cost estimates given in the 1970 Trustees’ Reports.

Description: In this year’s Trustees’ Reports, recently submitted to the Congress, most attention focuses on the cash benefits program which is projected to have an actuarial deficit of about 3% of taxable payroll, over the 75-year valuation period.

Description: This article discusses Social Security amendments of 1983 that include triggering devices based on trust-fund ratios that affect the funding or benefits of the system for both OASDI and Medicare.

Description: Highlights the recent changes to Social Security and Medicare from enactment of the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act. Also highlights some changes voted in by one of the houses but not by both, and therefore not enacted.

Description: Describes the OASDI / HI changes brought about by the enactment of H.R. 1 in late October of 1972 including modifications for the HMO Act.

Description: This article from The Actuary, May 1972 – Volume 6, provides references to three notes: 1. Benefit Loads in Relation to Coverage and Reserves for Railroad Retirement and Other Major Retirement and Social Insurance Plans. 2. Two Decades oj Employee Benefit Plans, 1950- 70. 3. Social Security Programs throughout the World.

Description: The Social Security Act provides that, on or before April 1 of each year, the Board of Trustees of the OASDI trust funds and the two Medicare trust funds should submit to Congress reports presenting statistical operational data, future cost estimates, other actuarial analyses, and financing recommendations. The 1975 Report shows the worsening financial plight of the program.

Description: This article analyzes the proposals in the recent state of the union address to support Social Security. The recommendation contains two plans - to transfer surplus tax revenue to Social Security and to invest part of the transfers in equities.

Description: This article is a review of the 1977 book “The Future of Social Security,” by Alicia H. Munnell, formerly on the staff of the Brookings Institution and now an Assistant Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. The author of this review notes that the financial problems of the Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program have drawn considerable public attention during the past few years, and this has produced quite a number of books and papers on the subject with various recommendations as to what should be done about the future of the program. The reviewer thinks highly of this book, which covers the philosophical questions of individual equity vs. social adequacy, and the question of the effect of OASDI on savings and capital accumulation. Note: A detailed review of the book will appear in the Transactions.