Informing American Health Care Policy

ALAN C. MONHEIT, Ph.D. is the director of the division of social and economic research in the Center for Cost and Financing Studies at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. Monheit has served as a member of the President Health Care Reform Task Force, as a technical advisor to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Health Insurance Association of America. In 1993 he received the first AHCPR Administrator's Award for health services research. RENATE WILSON is adjunct associate professor of public health in the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health and a consultant to the Center for Cost and Financing Studies at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research. ROSS A. ARNETT is the director of the Center for Cost and Financing Studies at the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research.

• Foreword. Preface and Acknowledgments. The Editors. The Contributors. Introduction (A. Monheit & R. Wilson). PAST CHALLLENGES AND CURRENT ISSUES. National Medical ExpAnditure Surveys: Genesis and Rationale (R.Andersen & O. Anderson). Modeling Consumer and Provider Behavior: The First NationalExpenditure Study (G. Wilensky). The Provider System and the Changing Locus of Expenditure Data:Survey Strategies from Fee-for-Service to Managed Care (J. Cohen& A. Taylor). SOURCES OF PAYMENT AND THE STRUCTURE OF HEALTH INSURANCE. Examining Health Insurance Differences: Issues of Public Equity andCost Efficiency (P. Short). Health Insurance, Employment, and the Labor Market (A.Monheit). VULNERABLE POPULATIONS: HEALTH CARE AND MEASURES OF ACCESS. The National ExpAnditure Surveys and Studies of Access to Care byVulnerable Populations (M. Berk). Evaluating Medicare and Medicaid: The Yield in Information from theNational Medical Expenditure Surveys (J. Kasper). SURVEY METHODS, BUDGET CONSTRAINTS, AND OPERATIONAL ISSUES. Better Estimates of Populations at Risk and More EfficientSampling: Changing Survey Design Strategies over Time (S.Cohen). Continuity Versus Change: Challenges in Designing a SuccessorSurvey (D. Walden). Survey Integration and End-of-Century Constraints (R.Arnett). THE ROLE OF NATIONAL DATA IN POLICY FORMULATION. Health System Reform Debates and Medical Expenditure Surveys (L.Nichols). Name Index. Subject Index.

"... Informing American Health Care Policy is a useful, evenentertaining book for anyone who uses health data or who wants tounderstand the history and evolution of expAnditure surveys."(Health Affairs May/June 2000) "In this important book, the lead researchers associated with NMESdescribe the development of this rich data source and, in a seriesof well-crafted papers, illustrate the use of these data ininforming major areas of health policy. It is a must-read foranyone interested in American health policy-especially for youngerprofessionals entering this growing field." (Uwe E. Reinhardt,James Madison Professor of Political Economy, PrincetonUniversity) "National health expenditure surveys have provided policymakerswith the information they need to make informed decisions. Thisvolume tells us about the evolution and contributions of thefederal government's most ambitious health care survey. I recommAndit for those interested in improving the quality of data availableto those who formulate policy." (John K. Iglehart, founding editor,Health Affairs) "I enjoyed reading this book. Thanks to the major investment inhealth expAnditure and insurance surveys and the increasinglysophisticated analytic capacity described in this volume, policyofficials now have a much more precise and up-to-date understandingof the implications of policy choices." (Karen Davis, president,The Commonwealth Fund; developed President Carter's 1977 nationalhealth reform proposal) "Thoughtful and informed reflections on the lessons learned byNMES. Provides sound guidance and procedures required to addressthe Anduring policy questions of Who's covered? Who pays?, and Howmuch? in the emerging U.S. health care environment of the future."(Lu Ann Aday, professor of behavioral sciences and management andpolicy sciences, the University of Texas School of Public Health;and author, Designing and Conducting Health Surveys, FourthEdition)