This public use data file is one in a series of public use event files drawn from the 2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) Household Component (HC) and Medical Provider Component (MPC). Released as an ASCII file (with related SAS, SPSS, Stata, and R programming statements), a SAS transport file, a SAS v9 file, a Stata file, and an Excel file, the Appendix to MEPS 2021 Event Files, or CLNK file, is used for linking the MEPS 2021 Conditions file (HC-231) with the MEPS 2021 Event Files (HC-229A through HC-229H). The file contains data collected during the 2021 portion of Round 7, and all of Rounds 8 and 9 for Panel 23; the 2021 portion of Rounds 5 and 7, and all of Round 6 for Panel 24; the 2021 portion of Round 3 and all of Rounds 4 and 5 for Panel 25; and Rounds 1, 2, and the 2021 portion of Round 3 for Panel 26 (i.e., the rounds for the MEPS panels covering the calendar year 2021). This year, 2021, is the first data year to include four panels of data. Because of concerns about lower response rates due to COVID-19, Panels 23 and 24 were extended to include 9 rounds of data collection; data for Rounds 7, 8, and 9 for Panel 23 and Rounds 5, 6, and 7 for Panel 24 are included in the 2021 data files.
For more details on loading MEPS PUFs into R, SAS, and Stata, please visit the MEPS GitHub page.
*The PDF version of the codebook is recommended for printing; the HTML version is database driven and lets you navigate quickly to details on each variable.
**Right-click on the data file link, then select Save Target As or Save Link As to download the file.
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