Measuring Adequacy of Coverage for the Privately Insured

Abstract

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. The central problem is that national surveys with the relevant data are not designed to generate state-level estimates. The study addresses this shortcoming by using a two-sample modeling approach to estimate state-level measures of out-of-pocket spending relative to income for privately insured adults and children. National data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey—Household Component and state representative data from the from the Current Population Survey are used. Variation in out-of-pocket spending over time and across states is shown, highlighting concern about the adequacy of coverage for 2.9% of privately insured children and 7.8% of privately insured adults. Out-of-pocket spending relative to income is an important indicator of access to care and should be monitored at the state level.