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The Medical Costs of The Young and Old: A Forty Year Perspective

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Author Info
David M. Cutler
Ellen Meara

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Abstract

In this paper, we examine the growth in medical care spending by age over the past 40 years. We show that between 1953 and 1987, medical spending increased disproportionately for infants, those under 1 year, and the elderly, those 65 and older. Annual spending growth for infants was 9.8 percent and growth for the elderly was 8.0 percent compared to 4.7 percent for people aged 1-64. Within the infant and the elderly population, excess spending growth was largely driven by more rapid growth of spending at the top of the medical spending distribution. Aggregate changes in outcomes for infants and the elderly are consistent with these changes in spending growth, but we do not present any causal evidence on this point.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 6114.

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Date of creation: Jul 1997
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:6114

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. David M. Cutler & Mark McClellan & Joseph P. Newhouse & Dahlia Remler, 1996. "Are Medical Prices Declining?," NBER Working Papers 5750, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Cutler, David M, 1995. "The Incidence of Adverse Medical Outcomes under Prospective Payment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(1), pages 29-50, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  3. Newhouse, Joseph P, 1992. "Medical Care Costs: How Much Welfare Loss?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 3-21, Summer. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. David M. Cutler, 2002. "Employee Costs and the Decline in Health Insurance Coverage," NBER Working Papers 9036, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Peter Lloyd-Sherlock, 2000. "Failing the needy: public social spending in Latin America," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 12(1), pages 101-119.
  3. L.D. Mayhew, 1999. "Health and Welfare Services Expenditure in an Aging World," Working Papers ir99035, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. [Downloadable!]
  4. David Meltzer & Jeanette Chung, 2001. "Effects of Competition under Prospective Payment on Hospital Costs among High and Low Cost Admissions: Evidence from California, 1983 - 1993," NBER Working Papers 8069, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. David M. Cutler & Ellen Meara, 1999. "The Technology of Birth: Is it Worth it?," NBER Working Papers 7390, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  6. Margherita Giannoni & Theodore Hitiris, . "The Regional Impact of Health Care Expenditure: the Case of Italy," Discussion Papers 99/20, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
  7. Dov Chernichovsky & Sara Markowitz, 2001. "Toward a Framework for Improving Health Care Financing for an Aging Population: The Case of Israel," NBER Working Papers 8415, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. David M. Cutler & Ellen Meara, 1999. "The Concentration of Medical Spending: An Update," NBER Working Papers 7279, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  9. Michael Stolpe, 2003. "Ressourcen und Ergebnisse der globalen Gesundheitsökonomie, Einführung und Überblick," Kiel Working Papers 1177, Kiel Institute for the World Economy. [Downloadable!]
  10. Dov Chernichovsky & Sara Markowitz, 2004. "Aging and aggregate costs of medical care: conceptual and policy issues," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(6), pages 543-562. [Downloadable!]
  11. Ernst R. Berndt & Iain M. Cockburn & Douglas L. Cocks & Arnold Epstein & Zvi Griliches, 1997. "Is Price Inflation Different for the Elderly? An Empirical Analysis of Prescription Drugs," NBER Working Papers 6182, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  12. Gabriel Picone & Frank Sloan, 2001. "How Costly Are Smokers to Other People? Longitudinal Evidence on the Near Elderly," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, Berkeley Electronic Press, vol. 4. [Downloadable!]
  13. Uwe E. Reinhardt, 2000. "Health Care for the Aging Baby Boom: Lessons from Abroad," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(2), pages 71-83, Spring. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Denisard Alves & Christopher Timmins, 2001. "Social Exclusion and the Two-Tiered Healthcare System of Brazil," RES Working Papers 3132, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  15. Theo Hitiris, . "Growth and Containment of Health Care Expenditure in Industrial Countries," Discussion Papers 99/15, Department of Economics, University of York. [Downloadable!]
  16. Carlos Bethencourt & Vincenzo Galasso, . "On the Political Complementarity between Health Care and Social Security," Working Papers 184, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  17. Louise Sheiner, 2004. "The effects of technology on the age distribution of health spending: a cross-country perspective," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2004-14, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  18. Cláudia Koeppel Berenstein & Renata Guimarães Vieira de Souza & Simone Wajnman & Carla Jorge Machado, 2005. "Custos de internação no Nordeste e Sudeste em 1998: análise do efeito estrutura etária, freqüência de internações e estrutura de custos," Textos para Discussão Cedeplar-UFMG td273, Cedeplar, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. [Downloadable!]
  19. Denisard C. O. Alves & Christopher D. Timmins, 2001. "Social Exclusion And the Two-Tiered Healthcare System of Brazil," Anais do XXIX Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 29th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 072, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pósgraduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics]. [Downloadable!]
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