Concentration of Health Care Expenditures in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Research Findings No. 81

摘要

The Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS-HC) provides essential information for assessing trends in the concentration of health care expenditures in the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. The MEPS-HC data indicate that health care spending is highly concentrated, with a relatively small proportion of the population accounting for a large share of total health care expenses; in 1996, for example, the top 1 percent of the U.S. population accounted for 28 percent of the total health care expenditures and the top 5 percent for over one-half (56 percent). The data also show that over time there has been some decrease in the extent of this concentration at the upper tail of the expenditure distribution. This Statistical Brief presents estimates from the MEPS-HC and the National Medical Expenditure Survey (NMES) on the concentration of health care expenditures for the years 1987, 1996, and 2002. All differences between estimates discussed in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level unless noted otherwise.