Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security for Couples and Singles

社会保障、医疗保险和医疗补助共同占联邦政府支出的很大一部分（2017年为45%），由于人口老龄化和医疗成本上升，这些项目的成本预计将增加。大多数关于这些话题的研究都没有考虑到夫妻和单身之间的区别。该项目利用一个包括夫妻和单身人士在内的丰富框架来审查税收、社会保障和医疗补助，目的是评估这些项目的成本和收益。这项研究的结果将对这些政府项目产生广泛的政策影响。鉴于最近新冠肺炎引发的经济衰退以及在提高税收和为政府项目融资方面面临的相应挑战，该研究将满足了解这些成本和收益的迫切需求。这个研究项目将产生两个主要贡献。首先，它将仔细估计一个丰富的结构模型，包括寿命和医疗费用风险，以及夫妇和单身人士退休后的遗赠动机。其次，它将为夫妇和单身人士开发一个工作和退休阶段的代际重叠模型，并将使用该模型研究几种社会保障、医疗保险和医疗补助改革的成本和收益，以及各种税收变化。该项目的第一部分将产生关于老年人的新发现，这将有助于了解他们面临的风险以及他们目前拥有的用于确保这些风险的工具。该项目的第二部分将探讨如何改革医疗补助、医疗保险和社会保障，以一种结合夫妻和单身人士、他们面临的风险以及他们工作和储蓄的动机的模式。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

AbstractSocial Security, Medicare, and Medicaid jointly account for a large share of Federal government expenditures (45 percent in 2017) and the cost of these programs is projected to increase due to aging population and rising medical costs. Most of the research on these topics do not consider the distinction between couples and singles. This project utilizes a rich framework including both couples and singles to examine taxation, Social Security, and Medicaid, with the goal of evaluating the costs and benefits of these programs. The findings in this research will have broad policy implications on these government programs. The research will respond to the urgent need in understanding these costs and benefits given the recent COVID-19 induced recession and corresponding challenges in raising taxes and financing government programs.This research project will yield two main contributions. First, it will carefully estimate a rich structural model of longevity and medical expenses risks, and bequest motives of couples and singles during retirement. Second, it will develop an overlapping-generations model with working and retirement stages for couples and singles and it will use this model to study the costs and benefits of several Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid reforms, in conjunction with various tax changes. The first part of the project will yield new findings about the elderly, which will help in understanding the risks that they face and the tools that they currently have at their disposal to insure these risks. The second part of this project will explore how to reform Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security in a model that incorporates couples and singles, the risks that they face, and their motivation to work and save.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.