Family health expenses, United States - july-december 1962

During July-December 1962,the Health Inter-view Survey collected information on personal health expenditures during the year prior to interview, Health expenses included in the survey were of five types-hospital, doctor, medicine, dental, and special and other expenses. Health expenses included amounts paid or to be paid by the family or friends or by insurance but excluded insurance premiums and expenses paid by governmental or private agencies. Thus, these health expenditures are consumer out-of-pocket expenses plus benefits received from insurance. Results of this survey have been published on a person basis in "Personal Health Expenses, Distribution of Persons by Amount and Type of Expenses," Vital and Health Statistics, Series 10, No, 22, and in "Personal Health Expenses, Per Capita Annual Expenses," Vital and Health Statistics, Series 10, No, 27. In the present report the data on health expenditures are presented for families and unrelated individuals. The information for persons in the civilian, noninstitutional population during the interview period was collected within each inter-viewed household by family group. A family is de-fined as two or more persons related by blood, marriage, or adoption who are living together in the same household. Members of the Armed Forces, excluded by definition from the civilian, noninstitutional population, are not counted in classifying the family group even if they live with the family. Thus the number of families will differ of Health Interview Statistics from other family statistics in which these persons are considered family members. Data for any unrelated individuals who were living in the household were excluded from the family and classified separately. Annual per family estimates of health expenses were prepared by summing the reported expenditures for which all members of the family responded with known information (a dollar amount or no expense, but not a nonresponse or unknown amount) and dividing by the number of families with known data for all members of the family. This procedure imputes to the families with less than complete reporting the same distribution of health expenditures as that reported for families with known data for the entire membership. About 92.4 percent of all families and unrelated individuals reported known data for hospital expense. The estimates for special and other expense are based on 90.0 percent of all families, while the data for doctor, dental, and medicine expense per family are based on known data for 91.8 percent of all families and individuals.