"This report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality presents estimates of total nursing home expenses during 1996."--Abstract.

"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

"This report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality presents descriptive data on health care spending in the United States."--Abstract.

The National Center for Health Services Research and Health Care Technology Assessment conducted a study to examine how Americans use health care services and to determine national patterns of health expenditures and insurance coverage. Data were obtained from the National Medical Care Expenditure Survey interviews conducted with 14,000 randomly selected households at 6 times over an 18-month period during 1977 and 1978. Data were analyzed to determine annual expenses for personal health services and mean health care expense per person by selected demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The data showed that inpatient hospital and physician care consumed almost 60% of expenditures during 1977. Persons with expense spent $594 on the average for health services, with the family and private insurance together assuming almost two-thirds of the cost. On an individual basis, females of all ages incurred a higher percentage of out-of-pocket expense than did males. Mean expense per person with personal health care expenditures was also higher than the $594 national average for blacks, for those with family incomes below $12,000, and for persons living in the Northeast and the West. Between 1970 and 1977, increases in health care expenditures after adjustment for health care price inflation were particularly noticeable for the population age 55 and older and for the inpatient component of services. (Author/NB)

Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.