Title | Medical Expenditure Measures in the Health and Retirement Study. |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Year of Publication | 2011 |
Authors | Goldman, DP, Zissimopoulos, JM, Yang, L |
Journal | Forum Health Econ Policy |
Volume | 14 |
Issue | 3 |
Pagination | 4 |
Date Published | 2011 Apr 01 |
ISSN Number | 2194-6191 |
Call Number | newpubs20110418_Goldman.pdf |
Abstract | This paper reviews out-of-pocket (OOP) medical expenditure measures collected in the Health and Retirement Study (HRS). Medical expenditures are an important cost of poor health. Medical expenditure measures are important for understanding retirement decisions, financial preparation for retirement, and predicting the consequences of health care reform, particularly Medicare reform. Despite the comprehensiveness of the HRS, there are always limitations to what can be learned from population interviews. To assess the quality of current HRS measures of OOP spending, we compare various measures of OOP spending across survey waves to the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS), two surveys that expend considerable resources on measuring both OOP spending and total medical expenditures. Such comparisons make it possible to identify potential bias in the HRS data and to improve HRS measures of OOP. We find that the HRS produces good quality and useful data on OOP spending. |
DOI | 10.2202/1558-9544.1267 |
User Guide Notes | |
Endnote Keywords | health Care Costs/Medical Expenditures/Methodology/mid-term review/mid-term review |
Endnote ID | 25130 |
Alternate Journal | Forum Health Econ Policy |
Citation Key | 7549 |
PubMed ID | 24049512 |
PubMed Central ID | PMC3773871 |
Grant List | P30 AG024968 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States P30 AG043073 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States |