The $5 billion temporary reinsurance program designed to help employers maintain health benefits for early retirees likely will be exhausted within two years—well before the 2014 termination date for the program, according to a study by the nonpartisan Employee Benefit Research Institute.

Using data to calculate how many early retirees there are and how much they tend to spend on health care services, Paul Fronstin, director of the EBRI Health Research and Education Program and author of the study, concludes available funds will be exhausted well before the program is set to expire. The study appears in the July 2010 EBRI Notes.