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Measuring Adequacy of Coverage for the Privately Insured: New State Estimates to Monitor Trends in Health Insurance Coverage
Lynn A. Blewett*,
Holly Rodin,
Gestur Davidson,
and
Michael Davern
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: blewe001{at}umn.edu.
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Abstract |
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The privately insured are assuming a greater share of the costs of their health care,yet little is known about changes in out-of-pocket spending at the state level. Thecentral problem is that national surveys with the relevant data are not designed togenerate state-level estimates. The study addresses this shortcoming by using a twosamplemodeling approach to estimate state-level measures of out-of-pocket spendingrelative to income for privately insured adults and children. National data fromthe Medical Expenditure Panel Survey–Household Component and state representativedata from the from the Current Population Survey are used. Variation in out-ofpocketspending over time and across states is shown, highlighting concern about theadequacy of coverage for 2.9% of privately insured children and 7.8% of privatelyinsured adults. Out-of-pocket spending relative to income is an important indicator ofaccess to care and should be monitored at the state level.
First published on January 16, 2009, doi:10.1177/1077558708330426
Medical Care Research and Review 2009;66:167.
A more recent version of this article appeared on April 1, 2009
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