I need to know the annualincrease in price, over the last few years (5
to 10 yeras) of the following health care categories (please give the
answer in average annual percentage, for example medications 6.9%)

Physician Services
Medical Care Services (Such as home care)
Hospital and Related Services
Prescription Drugs
Professional Medical Services (such as physical therapy etc.)
Non-prescription Medical Equipment and Supplies
Transportation
Housing Maintenance and Repair
Aids for independent living
Home furnishing
Wheelchair and other equipment maintenance

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 24 Mar 2003 09:24 PST

Hello Nacho123,

I hope you can clarify two things, so as to provide the best possible
answer to your question:

1.  Do you specifically want statistics from the US Bureau of Labor
Statistics, or would another source of official U.S. government
information be okay?

2.  Do you specifically need each and every one of the categories you
have listed?  In some cases, detailed price information may be
available, but not in the exact categories you have mentioned.

Let me know, so that I -- or another researcher -- can try to help you
out here.

Thanks.

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by nacho123-ga on 25 Mar 2003 06:04 PST

I was able to get the answers in the following categories:
Prescription drug costs
health care services
professional medical services
physicians services
dental services
eye care services
hospital services
I do not have answers to the other categories. It does not matter if
the answers com from the US Dept. of labor. Other reliable sources are
O.K.
It is OK if you can not get the answer to everyone of those
categories.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 25 Mar 2003 07:01 PST

Thanks for clarifying things.  One more question, if I may:

I have official government costs data, and percent changes, for
1993-2001 (and some earlier years as well) for the following
categories:

National Health Expenditures
Health Services and Supplies
Personal Health Care
Hospital Care
Professional Services
Physician and Clinical Services
Other Professional Services
Dental Services
Other Personal Health Care
Nursing Home and Home Health
Home Health Care
Nursing Home Care
Retail Outlet Sales of Medical Products
Prescription Drugs
Other Medical Products
Durable Medical Equipment
Other Non-Durable Medical Products
Net Cost of Private Health   Insurance
Government Public Health Activities
Investment
Research
Construction

The categories themselves are defined fully at the data source.  Would
these figures meet your needs?  They don't cover all your categories
as you have listed them, but this is a comprehensive set of national
health care costs never the less.  Let me know.

Thanks.

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Clarification of Question by nacho123-ga on 26 Mar 2003 11:52 PST

Yes, those figures will meet my needs, thankyou

Hello Nacho123-ga,

Thanks for posting an interesting question.  I have a penchant for
"official" figures, so it was a pleasure to track these down for you.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a site that
includes its main data summaries for the "National Health Expenditures
Tables".  You can see the site here:


http://cms.hhs.gov/statistics/nhe/historical/

Table 2 has the data for "National Health Expenditures Aggregate
Amounts and Average Annual Percent Change, by Type of Expenditure:
Selected Calendar Years 1980-2001".

As you can see, the individual dollar amounts, and the percent
changes, are given for each year.  I copied this information into a
spreadsheet, and calculated the average annual percent change in costs
(as was specified in your question) for the period 1993-2001.

The resulting data are:

Category..............................Annual Increase (%)
		
National Health Expenditures................6.36	
Health Services and Supplies................6.34	
Personal Health Care........................6.28	
Hospital Care...............................4.81	
Professional Services.......................6.73	
Physician and Clinical Services.............6.02	
Other Professional Services.................7.49	
Dental Services.............................6.83	
Other Personal Health Care.................13.12	
Nursing Home and Home Health................5.89	
Home Health Care............................7.29	
Nursing Home Care...........................5.52	
Retail Outlet Sales of Medical Products.....9.80	
Prescription Drugs.........................12.94	
Other Medical Products......................4.03	
Durable Medical Equipment...................4.84	
Other Non-Durable Medical Products..........3.63	
Net Cost of Private Health   Insurance......7.19	
Government Public Health Activities.........7.30	
Investment..................................6.42	
Research....................................9.64	
Construction................................2.66


Please note that on the left hand side of the web site page, under
"Resources", there is clickable text for a "Glossary".  This will take
you to a list of terms used by HHS, including the definitions of the
categories in their tables.


I hope this information is what you needed, but if you want some
additional explanations of anything I've included here, just let me
know by posting a Request for Clarification.

pafalafa-ga


search strategy: national health care cost statistics