Health spending by state of residence, 1991-2009.

Objective: Provide a detailed discussion of baseline health spending by state of residence (per capita personal health care spending, per enrollee Medicare spending, and per enrollee Medicaid spending) in 2009, over the last decade (1998-2009), as well as the differential regional and state impacts of the recent recession.

Data Source: State Health Expenditures by State of Residence for 1991-2009, produced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of the Actuary.

Principal Findings: In 2009, the 10 states where per capita spending was highest ranged from 13 to 36 percent higher than the national average, and the 10 states where per capita spending was lowest ranged from 8 to 26 percent below the national average.

Reconciling medical expenditure estimates from the MEPS and NHEA, 2007.

Objective: Provide a comparison of health care expenditure estimates for 2007 from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) and the National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA). Reconciling these estimates serves two important purposes. First, it is an important quality assurance exercise for improving and ensuring the integrity of each source's estimates.

"An overview of the NHEA with implications for cost analysis researchers".

Background/objective: The National Health Expenditure Accounts (NHEA) are the official government estimates of aggregate US health care spending. We summarize the data sources, methods, strengths, limitations, and applications of the NHEA.

Methods: To compile this article, we provide background on the NHEA, a description of the data sources and methods used to produce them, some recent findings that the NHEA produced, as well a discussion of their strengths, limitations, and applications drawn from several different sources, both internal and external to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

National health spending in 2006: a year of change for prescription drugs.

In 2006, U.S. health care spending increased 6.

U.S. Health spending by age, selected years through 2004.

This paper examines variations in health spending by children, working-age adults, and seniors for selected years between 1987 and 2004. Seniors spent far more per person than children or working-age adults, but the relative gap between the age groups has not changed much since 1987 except for those age eighty-five and older. Since the inception of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 1997, the proportion of children's health spending financed by public sources has increased, while the share paid for out of pocket has decreased.