Health expenditures in New York City, 1983

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE STUDY. Health expenditures in New York City totalled roughly $15.7 billion in 1983. Those expenditures represented 13.5 percent of the gross city product. Expenditures for personal health care services amounted to more than $1,900 per city resident. Despite comparatively high levels of health expenditures in New York City, such expenditures have risen much less dramatically over time than health expenditures nationally; from 1976 to 1983, city expenditures increased by 74.6 percent, compared with a national increase of 137.7 percent. More than one half (55.3%) of health expenditures in the city were accounted for by public funds. Nearly 50 percent of personal care expenditures were associated with the delivery of hospital services, for which expenditures totalled $6.9 billion. Fifty-five percent of Medicaid hospital outlays and 86 percent of Medicare hospital outlays went to private sector hospitals. More than $400 per capita was spent on physicians' services in New York City in 1983. Public sources of funds accounted for more than 80 percent of the $1.7 billion in long term care services expenditures; this contrasts with a much smaller proportion of public funding for such services nationally. More details on health expenditures in New York City follow. Data sources, definitions, study methods, and limitations are described in an appendix to this report.