Pursuit's Take
GAO reports that the “financial outlook of the Postal Service Retiree Health Benefits Fund (RHB Fund) is poor.” The fund has $62 billion in unfunded liabilities and only $50 billion in assets. According to GAO’s projections, the fund will be depleted by 2030 – impacting 500,000 postal retirees.
GAO provided three types of solutions to the insolvency issue – one that shifts the costs to the federal government (i.e. taxpayers), one that changes the benefits provided by the funds, and one that changes the way the benefits are financed. GAO correctly points out that it is up to Congress to decide how to solve this problem. Like most policy problems, this problem has been known for years yet Congress has been unable to solve it.
Read the full report