Affiliations: [a] Division of Medical Expenditure Studies, CIR, AHCPR,
Rockville, MD 20852, USA | [b] University of California at Santa Barbara, USA | [c] Division of Statistics and Research Methodology, CIR,
AHCPR, Rockville, MD 20852, USA
Note: [1] The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and no official
endorsement by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Agency for
Health Care Policy and Research, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or the
Department of Labor is intended or should be inferred. The authors wish to
thank Ms. Suzanne Worth, Social and Scientific Systems, Inc. for excellent
programming support, Ms. Susan Czechowicz, DSRM, CIR, AHCPR for excellent
research assistance, and Thesia Garner, Ph.D., PINR, OPLC, BLS for her
helpful suggestions. We appreciate the word processing support of Janine
MacDonald and Mary Seidenberg.
Abstract: The 1987 National Expenditure Survey was conducted by the Agency for Health Care
Policy and Research, USPHS to provide an assessment of the health care
utilization, expenditures, sources of payment and health coverage of the
civilian noninstitutional population. The Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) is sponsored by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics and provides a continuous and comprehensive flow of data on the
buying habits of consumers though the collection of information on the
expenditures, income, and socio-demographic characteristics of customer units.
It is designed to support Consumer Price Index revisions and social and economic
analyses. Differences in family out-of-pocket expenditures for hospital services, physician
services, services by other practitioners, lab tests and x-ray services, nursing
services, eye glasses and contact lenses, dental services, prescription
medicines are compared. Differences in the distributions of these expenditures
are explored as are the association of differences with population
characteristics.
