Actuarial status of the HI (hospital insurance) and SMI (supplementary medical insurance) Trust Funds

This article is adapted from the 1987 Annual Reports of the Medicare Board of Trustees. It presents a summary of the current financial and actuarial status of the Hospital Insurance (HI) and Supplementary Medical Insurance (SMI) Trust Funds. The Board found that the present financing schedule for the HI program is sufficient to ensure the payment of benefits over the next 12-14 years if the intermediate (II-A and II-B) assumptions underlying the estimates are realized. Although steps have been undertaken to reduce the rate of growth in payments to hospitals, the Board urges Congress to take remedial measures to bring future HI program costs and financing into balance. The Board found the SMI program to be actuarially sound but recommends that Congress take action to curtail the rapid growth in that part of Medicare.     

A new typology for R&D laboratories: Implications for policy analysts

Science policy analysts have traditionally classified R&D laboratories as government, private, or university. The authors argue that this view is outmoded and provides little help in understanding the rapidly changing environment of R&D laboratories. They provide and test an alternative scheme designed to cope with “sector blurring” and the intermingling of market and political influences on R&D laboratories. The authors also discuss implications of their scheme for a variety of contemporary science policy issues.     

THE ANALYSIS OF DESIGN OR THE DESIGN OF ANALYSIS?

The policy sciences have advanced in the past by introspection, and there appears to be a need for a return to such self-conscious examination of the field of inquiry. A design orientation offers a useful framework for such an examination. It requires reconsideration of some of the fundamental premises of policy inquiry. This article explores what impact design might have on the conventional process framework and then proceeds to discuss the development of a design perspective.     

Expenditures and receipts in state and local government finances: Reply

It is worth repeating that causality testing is a very complex task. The diversity of views on interpreting the definition of causality and on the methods for testing causality highlight this issue. In our study, we cite an excellent article which provides a detailed critique of various problems associated with causality tests (see Conway, et al., 1984). It would appear that Chowdhury's comment draws very strong conclusions and fails to consider some of the complex theoretical issues regarding causality tests as well as important data problems pertaining to state and local governments. Moreover, we find it somewhat curious that, given the strong similarities in our two studies, Chowdhury prefers to dwell on the mechanics of an alternative technique rather than concentrate on the fact that his alternative technique yields supporting results to our 1987 paper on the tax-spend hypothesis.The views expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent those of the U.S. Department of Treasury.