Although the government does sponsor a variety of studies of health care, none of them matches the unique design of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). By combining information from medical providers with information from a nationally representative sample of the general population, MEPS provides researchers with a rich and comprehensive source of data that can be used to estimate health care measures for the country as a whole. Moreover, its continuing design makes MEPS a valuable resource for tracking health care changes over time.
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