Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Publications

MEPS Publications

MEPS produces a variety of publications that summarize important health information collected from your participation in the survey. Here are some selected findings from MEPS publications that have garnered significant national media attention:

Heart conditions, cancer, trauma-related disorders, mental disorders, and asthma ranked highest in terms of direct medical spending in 1996 and 2006.
From Statistical Brief #248: The Five Most Costly Conditions, 1996 and 2006: Estimates for the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, PDF (128 KB)/ HTML

Table containing figure values follows image.

Year	Heart Conditions	Cancer	Trauma-related disorders	Asthma	Mental Disorders
Figure 1. Expenditures (in billions of 2006 dollars) for the five most costly conditions, 1996 and 2006
1996	$72.1	$46.9	$46.2	$35.5	$35.2
2006	$78.0	$57.5	$68.1	$51.3	$57.5
Source: Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 1996 and 2006

Percentage of persons with an expense, by type of service, 2007.
From Statistical Brief #272: National Health Care Expenses in the U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, 2007, PDF (202 KB)/ HTML

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	Any services	Hospital inpatient services	Office-based medical provider	Prescription medicines	Hospital outpatient services	Dental services	Emergency room services	Home health care	Other medical services and equipment
Figure 2. Percentage of persons with an expense, by type of service, 2007
Percent	84.9%	7.4%	71.0%	61.7%	14.9%	42.4%	12.2%	2.1%	18.4%
Source: Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2007

The percentages of children with expenses were fairly similar in 1996 and 2006 for most types of services.
From Statistical Brief #253: Trends in Health Care Expenditures for Children under Age 18: 2006 versus 1996, PDF (92 KB)/ HTML

Table containing figure values follows image.

Year	Office-based	Prescribed medicines	Dental	Emergency room	Hospital outpatient	Hospital inpatient
Figure 3. Percentage of children under age 18 with expenses by type of service, 1996 and 2006
1996	70.1%	55.6%	41.0%	12.0%	6.7%	3.0%
2006	71.0%	48.9%	45.2%	10.65	5.8%	2.9%
Source: Center for Financing, Access, and Cost Trends, AHRQ, Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, 2006

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