The Use of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and related AHRQ Data Resources to Inform Health Policy Research

• Activity Number: 117
• Type: Luncheons
• Date/Time: Monday, August 12, 2002 : 12:30 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Health Policy Statistics*
• Author(s): Steven Cohen*+
• Affiliation(s): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Abstract

The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey data support a wealth of basic descriptive and behavioral analyses of the U.S. health care system, including the population's access to, use of, and expenditures and sources of payment for health care; the availability and costs of private health insurance in the employment-related and non-group markets; the population enrolled in public health insurance coverage and those without health care coverage; and the role of health status in health care use, expenditures, and household decision-making, and in health insurance and employment choices. Over the past several years, the data have quickly become a linchpin for the nation's economic models and their projections of health care expenditures and utilization. This level of detail enables public and private sector economic models to develop national and regional estimates of the impact of changes in financing, coverage, and reimbursement policy, as well as estimates of who benefits and who bears the cost of a change in policy. The discussion will focus on the utility of this national data resource to inform health services research.