Trends in Health Care Expenditures for the Elderly, Age 65 and Older: 2001, 2006, and 2011

This Statistical Brief compares summary statistics on health care expenditures and expenditure distributions by type of service and sources of payment for the elderly (age 65 and over) in 2001, 2006, and 2011. The estimates are derived from data collected in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household (MEPS-HC) and Medical Provider Components (MEPS-MPC) on the U.S. civilian noninstitutionalized population. Health care expenses in MEPS represent payments to physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers for services reported by respondents to the MEPS-HC. Estimates for 2001 and 2006 were adjusted to 2011 dollars based on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) Price Index to remove the impact of medical price inflation on comparisons (http://www.meps.ahrq.gov/mepsweb/about_meps/Price_Index.shtml). All differences between estimates noted in the text are statistically significant at the 0.05 level or better.