Unfunded Retiree Healthcare: the Elephant in the Room

Robert C. Pozen is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a senior lecturer at the Harvard Business School. He previously was Chairman of MFS Investment Management and President of Fidelity Investments. He used these slides as part of a presentation on November 6th at the SIEPR Institute of Stanford University.

This presentation explains the little noticed challenge of unfunded retiree healthcare costs in the US. It reviews the scope of this problem in American states and cities. It compares the stricter rules for pension funding to the treatment of retiree healthcare. Finally, it evaluates the various proposals to constrain the growth of retiree healthcare costs.