I SRAEL’S first social security measure designed to cover more than a single risk was enacted on November 18, 1953, and became effective April 1, 1954. It provides benefits to the aged and to widows and orphans, maternity benefits, and benefits for work accidents. The provision of work accident and maternity benefits represents the improvement of existing programs and their consolidation into a...

We analyze the effect of heterogeneity on the widely used analyses of Baily (1978) and Chetty (2006) for optimal social insurance. The basic Baily-Chetty formula is robust to heterogeneity along many dimensions but requires that risk aversion be homogeneous. We extend the Baily-Chetty framework to allow for arbitrary heterogeneity across agents, particularly in risk preferences. We find that he...

Each year, starting with 1948, the Social Security Administration has prepared an annual summary of the extent to which voluntary health insurance is enabling the population of the United States to budget its medical care expenditures. The methodology originally developed has been consistently applied each year, although refinements and improvements have been made in the data. This year the ser...

The survey of private medical care expenditures and voluntary health insurance, made annually by the Social Security Administration, has special interest this year because of the increased attention being given to mounting medical care costs. In the following article, trends in the relationship of medical care expenditures to disposable personal income and prices are examined, as well as the tr...