Featured Reports

Using Tax Refunds to Increase Savings and Retirement Security

Allowing households to split their refunds could make saving simpler and, thus, more likely. Since federal income tax refunds total nearly $230 billion a year (more than twice the estimated annual aggregate amount of net personal saving in the United States), even a modest increase in the proportion of refunds saved every year could bring about a significant increase in savings.

This policy brief explores the important potential of refund splitting to expand savings and discusses the obstacles and practical steps needed to make the splitting of tax refunds a reality.

Making Good Choices (Winter 2005-2006 Trust Magazine article)

In partnership with Georgetown University’s Public Policy Institute and the Brookings Institution, the two-year, $3.9-million Retirement Security Project (RSP) is backed by an advisory board that includes members of five presidential administrations. RSP is looking for practical, commonsense ways to both prompt people to save more and identify incentives to saving embedded in government programs and policies.

IVF, Egg Donation, and Women’s Health

To date, more than one million babies have been born worldwide as a result of IVF and in 2003 U.S fertility clinics reported 112,872 IVF cycles. Although there has been considerable medical literature exploring the possible health effects of in vitro fertilization to babies born from this technology, the potential health risks to the women who undergo this process have been less extensively studied.

Pew Biomedical Scholars Win Top Awards

Two Pew Biomedical Scholars have won top science awards this fall.

Ready or Not? Protecting the Public's Health from Disease, Disasters, and Bioterrorism, 2006

Ready or Not? 2006 finds that five years after September 11, public health emergency preparedness is still not at an acceptable level. Limited progress continues to be but the big-picture goals of adequate preparedness remain unmet. As a result, Americans continue to face unnecessary and unacceptably high levels of risk.

In 2002, Congress passed the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Act, allocating nearly $1 billion annually to states to bolster public health emergency preparedness. Even after this investment of almost $4 billion, the government health agencies have yet to release state-by-state information to Americans or policymakers about how prepared their communities are to respond to health threats.

Pandemic Flu and the Potential for U.S. Economic Recession

A pandemic flu outbreak could sicken 90 billion and kill 2 million people in the United States, according to estimates, but a recent Trust for America's Health report examines another potential casualty-- our economy. According to the report, an outbreak could deliver a $680 billion blow to the U.S. economy, leading to the second worst recession since World War II.

U.S. Public Opinion on Uses of Genetic Information and Genetic Discrimination

While Americans are generally very supportive of the use of genetic information to improve their own health and the health of their families, 92 percent are wary that this same information could be used in ways that harm them, according to a public opinion survey by the Genetics and Public Policy Center conducted in late February and early March of 2007.

A Community of Beautiful Minds

More than 200 Pew Biomedical Scholars gathered earlier this year for the 20th anniversary reunion of the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences. It’s fair to say that they were excited.